^ 


erPRfw 


■^9i 


■^OtOeiCAL  SEVi*^ 


BV160  .Z853 

Zoeckier,  Otto,  1833-1906. 

Cross  of  Christ :  studies  in  the  history  of  rt 

and  Ihe  inner  life  of  Ihe  church. 


THE   CROSS    OF  CHRIST. 


THE 


CROSS    OF    CHRIST 


STUDIES    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF   RELIGION   AND 
THE    INNER    LIFE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 


/ 

'      BY   THE    REV. 
V 

OTTO     ZOECKLER,     D.D., 

PROFESSOR   OF   THEOLOGY   IN   GREIFSWALD. 


TRANSLATED,    IVJTH    THE    CO-OPERATION    OF    THE    AUTHOR, 

BY   THE 

REV.    MAURICE    J.    EVANS,    B.A. 


"Crux  Christ!  unica  est  eruditio  verborum  Dei,  theologia  sincerissima." 

Luther,  on  Psalm  vi.  ii. 


HODDER     AND      STOUGHTON, 
27,     PATERNOSTER     ROW, 

MDCCCLXXVII. 
\_All  Kights  Reserz'ed.^ 


Printed  by  Hazell,  Watson,  and  Viney,  London  and  Aylesbury. 


ii  A 


AUTHOR'S    PREFACE. 


A  MONOGRAPH  of  the  Cross  in  the  form  of  an  octavo 
volume  of  almost  five  hundred  pages  will  appear  to 
some  a  hazardous  undertaking ;  to  others,  it  may  be,  a  mon- 
strosity. He  who  has  seen  the  three  bulky  quarto  volumes 
of  Gretser's  gigantic  work  will  perhaps  doubt  the  possibility 
of  adding  anything  thereto  of  a  nature  to  complement  or 
correct  that  which  has  been  said  by  him.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  who  is  unacquainted  with  the  abundance  of  problems  con- 
nected with  the  history  of  worship  and  of  art,  and  even  of 
civihsation  and  morals,  presenting  themselves  in  this  domain, 
will  regard  it  as  hardly  comprehensible  that  a  volume,  even 
of  the  size  of  the  present  one,  should  be  composed  upon  this 
subject,  without  its  contents  being  afflicted  with  the  bane  of 
tedious  dryness,  or  with  the  pedantry  of  an  ingeniously  trifling 
miniature  painting. 

We  hope,  from  the  nature  and  contents  of  our  work,  to  be 
sufficiently  justified  against  objections  on  either  side.  A 
mere  hasty  glance  at  the  sketch  of  the  Literature  appended  to 
this  Preface  will  be  enough  to  correct  the  impression  of  those 
— of  the  one  class  or  of  the  other — who  doubt  as  to  the  neces- 
sity for  fresh  investigations  upon  our  subject,  and  specially 
as  to  the  timeliness  of  a  survey  of  the  researches  devoted  to 
this  subject.  To  the  seriously  reflecting  mind,  however,  not 
merely  that  side  of  the  subject  bearing  on  the  archaeology  of 
cultus  and  art — of  which  the  very  great  fulness  in  particular, 
is  forcibly  illustrated  by  our  compendious  list  of  the  works 


VI  AUTHORS    PREFACE. 

already  written  upon  it, — but  also  its  significance  for  a  deeper 
penetration  into  the  innermost  essence  of  Christianity,  and 
for  a  right  apprehension  of  highly  important  religious  and 
social  problems  of  the  present  day,  can  hardly  remain  long  a 
thing  unperceived.  The  cross  as  "  the  emblem  of  Christianity 
universally,"  as  the  symbolic  "  representation  of  the  one  great 
truth,  out  of  which  a  multitude  of  truths  may  be  developed,"  ^ 
is  only  apparently  on  a  level  with  a  number  of  other  religious 
emblems,  the  study  of  which  can  call  forth  no  interest  beyond 
that  of  an  art-historical  or  liturgical  examination.  It  may 
be  that  a  false  externalising,  specially  in  the  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  has  attached  itself  to  the  reverence  manifested 
towards  the  cross.  An  exact  and  critical  detailing  of  these 
superstitious  extravagances  and  mystical  playings  of  the 
imagination  may  more  than  once  run  the  risk  of  producing  a 
wearying  or  even  repelling  effect.  Nevertheless  there  is  inherent 
in  this  particular  sign  a  stronger  power  of  attraction  than  in  any 
of  the  other  symbols  of  Christianity.  The  externalising  and 
corrupting  influence  upon  the  essence  and  life  of  our  religion 
proceeding  from  it,  from  the  time  of  Constantino  and  Helena, 
was  followed  in  the  period  of  the  Reformation  by  a  purifying 
and  spiritualising  process,  which,  equally  with  that  process 
of  degeneration,  took  its  point  of  departure  in  the  original 
expression  of  believing  and  enthusiastic  attachment  to  the 
symbol  of  redemption.  The  Catholic  devotion  to  the  Cross, 
and  the  Evangelical  preaching  of  the  Cross,  have  their  roots 
in  the  same  soil.  The  implement  of  torture,  transformed 
from  an  abhorred  symbol  of  the  curse  into  a  rock  of  salva- 
tion for  all  peoples,  is  the  common  sacrificial  altar  of  both, 
alike  of  that  half  of  Christendom  which  has  returned  to  the 
poor  rudimentary  ordinances  of  the  world  (Gal.  iv.  3  ;  Col. 
ii.  8,  20),  and  of  that  which  by  virtue  of  a  truly  spiritual 
apprehension  and  embodiment  of  the  idea  of  the  cross  of 

'  K.  Chr.  W.  Biihr. 


author's  preface.  vii 

Jesus  (Matt.  xvi.  24),  is  raised  above  the  danger  of  relapse 
into  a  heathen  or  Jewish  externahty.  Nor  does  it  in  the  pre- 
sent day  deny  its  place  of  honour  and  of  power,  either  in  the 
Romish,  or  in  the  Greek,  or  in  the  Evangelical  Church ;  and 
it  will  continue  to  maintain  its  central  and  unitinsf  sienificance 
for  the  totality  of  the  Church  until  the  end  of  the  days. 

A  delineation,  briefly  presenting  in  its  leading  features  the 
historic  course  of  development  which  gave  rise  successively 
to  these  main  forms  and  phases  of  the  religion  of  the  Cross, 
may,  on  account  of  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  its  object,  be 
regarded  as  secured  against  the  suspicion  of  micrologic  dul- 
ness.  The  history  of  the  Cross  necessarily  presents  a  reflected 
image  of  the  history  of  Christianity  itself,  and  indeed  a  more 
instructive  and  important  one  than  any  other  similar  contem- 
plation, under  the  veil  of  an  emblem,  of  the  rise  and  growth 
of  our  religion  hitherto,  which  might  in  any  way  be  attempted. 
Specially  upon  a  closer  examination  of  its  preparatory  history 
— in  the  remarkable  and  partly  enigmatical  airy  reflections 
which,  in  the  form  of  so  many  a  cruciform  symbol  upon  the 
art  monuments  of  the  pre-Christian  as  of  modern  Heathen- 
dom, serve  as  heralds  and  precursors  of  the  cultus  of  the 
Cross  in  the  Christian  Church — does  our  subject  awaken 
interest  in  every  one  at  all  endowed  with  historic  culture,  and 
a  sense  for  the  appreciation  of  higher  ethical  endeavours  and 
problems.  The  title  "  Contribution  to  the  Philosophy  of 
History,"  pertains  with  unquestionable  right  to  a  treatment 
of  the  subject  designed  and  executed  from  such  standpoint ; 
even  though  from  time  to  time  an  indispensable  entering  into 
the  details  of  the  controversies  with  regard  to  the  archaeology 
of  worship  or  of  art,  as  also  an  examination  of  the  more 
important  phenomena  of  the  dogmatic  or  mystic-ascetic 
literature  bearing  upon  our  subject,  should  occasion  many 
deviations  from  the  mode  of  treatment  ordinarily  prevailing 
in  works  on  the  philosophy  of  history. 


Vlll  AUTHOR  S    PREFACE. 

We  might  also,  looking  not  so  much  at  the  plan  and  mode 
of  treatment  as  at  the  nature  of  its  contents,  have  ventured 
to  designate  our  book  an  "  Apology  for  Christianity."  For  a 
history  of  the  glorifying  of  the  Cross  by  the  forms  of  cultus 
and  the  art-formations  of  the  Church,  but  also  not  less  by  the 
manifold  products  of  the  practical  following  of  Christ  upon  the 
via  regia  crucis,  is  in  itself,  without  any  apologetic  addition  or 
rhetorical  art,  an  effective  defence  of  Christianity.  And  the 
more  vigorously  and  incisively  we,  in  presenting  this  history, 
employ  the  critical  standard  which  the  Evangelical  standpoint 
of  faith  places  in  our  hand  ;  the  more  carefully  all  glorifica- 
tion of  the  sensuous  and  external  side  of  the  symbol  of 
redemption,  in  the  sense  of  an  unsound  romanticism  or  of  a 
hazy  natural-philosophic  mystery,  remains  excluded ;  the 
m.ore  emphatically,  on  the  other  hand,  the  intransitory 
religious-ethical  core  and  centre  of  the  same  is  presented  in 
bold  relief,  and  is  set  forth  in  its  ever  radiant  clearness,  its 
irresistible  power  of  attraction,  its  solace  and  peace-diffusing 
operations,  among  Christians  of  all  confessions :  so  much 
more  distinctly  will  be  brought  out  that  which  the  Cross 
preaches  in  the  present  day,  alike  to  the  scornful  despisers 
as  to  the  salvation-loving  friends  of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  and 
at  the  same  time  with  the  elenctic  will  also  the  apologetic 
significance  of  this  preaching  become  apparent,  amidst  the 
conflict  of  the  powers  of  our  age. 

We  hope  that,  on  account  of  the  paramount  interest  which 
the  subject  presents  on  more  than  one  side,  the  studies  and 
literary  notes,  bearing  more  upon  the  learned  details  of  our 
investigations,  which  we  have  collected  in  the  form  of  a 
number  of  excurses  at  the  end  of  our  work, — some  of  these 
only  slightly  connected  with  the  main  object  of  our  examina- 
tion, (Nos.  III.,  IV.  and  VII.,) — will  meet  with  a  not  unfriendly 
reception  at  the  hand  of  the  majority  of  our  readers. 

Greifswald,  July,  1875. 


if 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE. 


'T~^HE  Christian  conception  of  the  Cross  of  Christ  is  th^t  of 
-*-  the  world's  altar  of  reconciliation,  on  which  the  sacrifice 
of  the  God-man  is  the  antitype  and  substance,  not  only  of 
the  typical  expiations  of  the  Old  Covenant,  but  also  of  all 
those  shadowy  expiations  which  occupy  so  prominent  a  place 
in  the  history  of  all  ancient  peoples.  The  supreme  affection 
which  the  Church  has  always  cherished  for  the  symbol  of  the 
Cross  is  thus  an  affection  which  has  for  its  object,  not  the 
instrument  of  death  in  itself,  but  the  Divine  Saviour  who  in 
grace  hung  thereon.  The  Church  in  all  ages  has  rejoiced  to 
extol  the  love  of  Him  who  redeemed  her  with  His  blood.  In 
our  author's  volume  the  paramount  influence  of  this  affection 
upon  the  Church's  thought  and  life  is  traced  through  the 
successive  ages  of  her  history.  So  early  as  the  time  of  the 
Apostles,  the  grace  of  her  Redeemer  finds  its  meet  com- 
mendation in  Christian  song.  One  of  the  earliest  hymns  of 
the  Cross  is  that  communicated  by  the  Apostle  Paul : 

"  If  we  have  died  with  Him,  we  shall  also  live  with  Him  ; 
If  we  suffer,  we  shall  also  reigii  with  Him  : 
If  we  deny  Him,  He  also  will  deny  us  ; 
If  we  believe  not,  yet  He  abideth  faithful, 
He  cannot  deny  Himself."  ^ 

Who  can  tell  to  what  extent  such  calm  and  peaceful  songs 
of  the  Christians  on  that  memorable  Sunday  preceding  the 
battle  of  the  Milvian  Bridge  affected  the  perturbed  mind  of 
Constantine,  and  disposed  him  to  accept  as  a  token  of  deliver- 


X  translator's  preface. 

ance  the  sign  which  on  the  next  day  appeared  to  him  in 
the  sky  ?  The  songs,  too,  of  the  Church  in  the  Mediaeval 
Age,  and  in  later  times,  still  celebrate  with  the  same  ardour 
the  same  inexhaustible  theme/  A  translation  of  some  of 
these  is  given  in  the  following  pages  (pp.  316,  317,  323, 
and  37i)>  the  poetic  rendering  of  which  in  English  is  due 
to  the  kindness  of  a  lady  who  has  bestowed  great  pains  on 
the  preserving  of  the  metre  of  the  original.  Of  English 
hymn-writers  perhaps  none  have  surpassed  Kelly  on  this 
theme,  particularly  in  his  hymn 

"  Glory,  glory  everlasting, 
Be  to  Him  who  bore  the  cross  !  " 

Scarcely  later  than  the  Church's  first  efforts  in  song  to  the 
praise  of  the  Crucified  are  the  first  symbolic  representations 
of  the  blessings  obtained  through  redemption  in  Christ. 
Figures  like  those  delineated  on  p.  201  of  this  work — with- 
out the  Greek  letters — were  observed  by  the  Rev.  Hugh 
Macmillan  upon  certain  rings  in  the  Museum  at  Naples.  As 
the  rings  upon  which  these  emblems  were  engraved  were 
taken  from  the  ruins  of  Pompeii  (overwhelmed  by  the  eruption 
of  Vesuvius,  A.D.  79),  they  must  have  dated  at  the  latest  from 
the  third  quarter  of  the  first  century.  "The  same  symbols," 
he  says,  in  a  recent  article  in  the  Family  Treasury^"  "  which 
we  find  in  the  Roman  Catacombs, — the  palm-branch,  the 
sacred  fish,  the  monogram  of  Jesus,  the  dove, — are  unmis- 
takably represented  on  these  rings.  Some  of  them  are 
double,  indicating  that  they  were  used  by  married  persons  ; 
one  has  the  palm-branch  twice  repeated ;  another  exhibits 
the  palm  and  anchor;  a  third  has  a  dove  with  foliage  in  its 

1  An  excellent  monograph  on  one  of  the  earlier  encomiasts  of  the  cross  was 
published  at  the  close  of  1876  by  Kemink  and  Son,  Utrecht:  Johannes  Dafnascenus, 
etc.,  which  gives  a  sketch  of  this  Father  as  a  theologian,  a  preacher,  and  a  poet. 
The  author  is  Dr.  F.  H.  J.  Grundlehner,  a  young  theologian  of  the  Utrecht 
School. 

^  Sept.  1 87 7. 


translator's  preface.  xi 

bill;  and  one  ring  has  the  Greek  word  Elpis — Hope — inscribed 
upon  it." 

With  the  vision  of  Constantine  and  the  discovery  of  the 
supposed  wood  of  the  Cross  by  Helena,  another  era  dawns 
upon  the  Church,  one  in  which  bitter  suffering  is  exchanged 
for  the  favour  of  the  secular  powers.  The  history  of  Helena's 
discovery  is  involved  in  the  greatest  obscurity.  Eusebius 
himself  does  not  indeed  directly  mention  this  event ;  but,  in 
a  letter  of  Constantine  to  Macarius,  preserved  by  Eusebius 
{Life  of  Constantine,  iii.  30),  this  emperor  speaks  of  the 
recovery  of  the  Cross  as  of  a  fact  universally  acknowledged. 
For  by  the  expression  "  token  of  the  most  sacred  passion  of 
the  Redeemer,  which  had  been  so  long  buried  under  the 
earth,"  it  would  seem  evident  beyond  doubt  that  only  the 
wood  of  the  True  Cross  can  be  meant,  and  not  the  sepulchre, 
the  place  of  which  was  never  lost  sight  of.  What  we  no 
longer  possess,  however,  is  the  evidence  on  which  such  a  man 
as  Cyril  affirmed  without  hesitation  that  the  cross  of  the 
Lord  was  still  in  existence  in  his  time.  All,  therefore,  that 
can  now  be  said  on  the  question  is  summed  up  by  our  author 
under  the  head  of  Chapter  IV.  of  this  work. 

The  shrinking  on  the  part  of  the  early  Christians  from 
directly  depicting  the  instrument  of  their  Lord's  passion  is 
well  known  :  the  earliest  representation  of  the  so-called  Latin 
Cross  in  the  Catacombs  is  said  to  belong  to  the  time  of  Pope 
Damasus  (366 — 384).  One  of  the  earliest  representations  of 
the  Crucifixion  in  stone  of  those  now  existing  is  that  known 
as  the  Camus  Cross,  on  the  summit  of  the  ridge  of  Downie, 
near  Monikie,  N.B.  This  monument  is  about  six  feet  in 
height,  and  bears  upon  its  west  or  obverse  side  the  figure  of 
the  Saviour  extended  upon  the  cross,  and  under  His  feet 
what  appears  to  be  a  very  large  footboard.  Beneath  is  a 
figure  of  Mary  weeping.  On  the  other  side  is  a  figure  sup- 
posed to  represent  a  priest  with  a  book  upon  his  breast.     The 


XU  TRANSLATORS    PREFACE. 

whole  cross  is  covered  with  sculptured  figures,  said  to  repre- 
sent angels,  priests  with  their  books,  and  a  centaur,  but 
very  difficult  to  decipher.  According  to  the  old  Scottish 
chroniclers,  e.g.,  Boece  or  Boyce  in  his  Scotorian  Histories 
(1527),  this  cross  was  erected  to  mark  the  grave  of  the  Danish 
General  Camus,  slain  in  flight  after  the  battle  of  Barrie,  loio. 
Inasmuch  as  the  family  of  Boyce  had  long  before  his  time 
been  connected  with  Panbride,  in  the  immediate  neighbour- 
hood, his  account  in  the  main  is  the  more  worthy  of  credit.^ 
Some  magnificent  crosses  at  and  near  Meigle  in  Perthshire, 
and  Glamis  and  Aberlemno  in  Forfarshire,  are  connected  by 
tradition  with  the  murder  of  the  erevvhile  victor  at  Barrie, 
Malcolm  II.,  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  (about  1034).  A 
more  pacific  association,  on  the  other  hand,  with  the  wayside 
crosses  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  that  of  the  rest  afforded  to  the 
weary  traveller  by  means  of  the  seats  ordinarily  raised  at 
the  foot.  To  this  friendly  custom  of  placing  seats  under  the 
cross,  the  old  Welsh  proverb  owes  its  origin  :  "  Where  there 
is  a  cross,  there  is  wont  to  be  a  resting-place." 

The  opposition  to  the  use  of  crosses  and  crucifixes  which 
had  already  arisen  early  in  the  ninth  century,  and  found  its 
representatives  in  Claude  of  Turin,  the  Albigenses,  and  later 
the  theologians  of  the  Reformed  Church,  is  perhaps  to  be 
regarded  as  but  a  natural  and  healthful  reaction  against  a 
heathenish  adoration  of  the  material  cross,  so  generally 
exhibited  on  the  part  of  the  more  worldly  and  superstitious 
of  the  adherents  of  Rome.  At  any  rate,  though  sometimes 
carried  beyond  due  limits,  it  could  not  be  called  a  bhnd  or 
unreasoning  opposition  to  the  emblem  of  redemption,  and 
still  less  an  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  redemption  itself. 
Luther,  too,  sometimes  expresses  his  indignation  against  the 

'  The  account  of  Boyce  received  confirmation  in  some  of  its  more  important 
particulars,  on  the  opening  of  the  grave  by  order  of  Sir  Patrick  Maule  of  Panmure, 
about  the  year  1620. 


translator's  preface.  xiii 

abuse  of  crosses  and  crucifixes,  to  the  obscuring  of  the 
doctrine  of  salvation,  as  strongly  as  any  of  those  above 
mentioned.  And  we  must  remember  that  the  charge  of 
Manichean  doctrines  brought  against  the  Albigenses  rests 
almost  entirely  on  the  testimony  of  their  opponents,  and  does 
not  appear  to  be  critically  well  supported.  Nevertheless  the 
more  conservative  position  taken  up  by  the  Lutheran  Church 
towards  tlie  emblem  of  Christ's  redemptive  death  is  histori- 
cally justified  by  the  abundance  of  consolatory  literature  of 
the  Cross  yielded  by  that  Church  in  the  Reformation  age, 
and  the  glorious  succession  of  Hymns  of  the  Cross  which  she 
has  continued  to  yield  even  to  the  present  day.  The  true 
corrective  to  every  form  of  abuse  of  the  Cross  will  be  found 
in  the  vigorous  and  loving  presentation  of  its  real  signifi- 
cance, as  the  emblem  of  redemption  and  consolation  through 
the  Crucified,  and  this  the  Evangelical  Church  of  Germany 
has  afforded  in  no  stinted  measure.  Nor  has  the  important 
truth  of  sanctification  through  the  Cross  been  altogether 
overlooked,  as  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  redemption,  in 
accordance  with  i  Cor.  i.  30. 

The  Church  may  yet  have  to  acquire  by  a  fresh  experience 
of  the  world's  hostility  a  deeper  sense  of  her  oneness  with 
Christ  in  sufferings  and  glory.  The  saying  of  the  stout- 
hearted Godfrey  de  Bouillon  in  1099,  when  offered  the  crown 
of  Jerusalem,  may  eight  centuries  later  come  to  express  the 
feeling  of  the  whole  Church:  "I  desire  not  to  wear  a  crown  of 
gold  where  Christ  wore  a  crown  of  thorns."  Then  the  hour 
of  her  triumph  will  not  tarry.  To  commend,  in  the  mean- 
time, the  fulness  of  consolation  and  life  which  comes  to  us 
through  the  cross  of  atonement  is  the  aim  of  the  present 
volume,  addressed  as  it  is,  more  especially,  to  "  the  quiet  ones 
in  the  land." 

The  examination  in  detail  of  the  points  advanced  in  the 
text   is   reserved    for   the  Appendices,   which    moreover   are 


XIV  TRANSLATOR  S    PREFACE. 

interesting  as  (in  the  words  of  a  German  reviewer)  "  affording 
a  glance  into  the  workshop  of  the  author."  The  historic  and 
archaeological  value  of  No.  VI.  in  particular  will  be  seen  to 
be  very  considerable ;  and,  indirectly,  its  doctrinal  value  in 
relation  to  the  history  of  the  Lord's  passion  and  resurrection, 
not  less  so.  A  general  index  and  a  few  short  notes  included 
within  square  brackets  have  been  added  to  the  English 
edition.  The  former  chronologically  arranged  in  the  interest 
of  the  general  reader.  Thanks  to  the  great  care  exercised 
in  the  printing,  the  book  has  been  preserved  exceptionally 
free  from  errors  for  a  work  of  such  varied  references. 

M.  J.  E. 

29///  Sept.,  1877. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Author's  Preface         ........       v 

Translator's  Preface ix 

MONOGRAMMATIC     LITERATURE     ON     THE     CrOSS,      AND      THE 

Sign  of  the  Cross     .......    xvii 

Introduction        .........  xxvii 

Chap.  I.  The  Cross  in  the  pre-Christian  and  extra- 
Christian  Religions  : 

A.  As  THE  Symbol  of  Blessing    ......  i 

B.  As  THE  Symbol  of  the  Curse  .....        46 

Chap.  II.  The  Cross  upon  Calvary  ....  85 

a.  According  to  the  Declarations  of  the  Gospels      .          .  88 
B.  According    to    the    Testimony    of    the    Apostolic    Dis- 
courses AND  Writings       ......  99 

Chap.  III.  The  Cross  of  Christ  in  the  pre-Constantine 

Church  and  Theology    ......     109 

Chap.  IV.  Constantine's  Vision  of  the  Cross,  as  the 
starting-point  for  the  sensuous-external  adora- 
tion OF  THE  Cross  in  the  Middle  Ages        .         .     136 

Chap.  V.  The    Cross    in    the    Church    of   the    Middle 

Ages 152 

A.  The   exertion  of  the  power    of  the  Cross  in  the  Mis- 

sionary Activity  of  the  Church       .  .  .  .      ^^55 

B.  The    glorifying   of  the  majestv  of   the   Cross  in  the 

CuLTus  OF  the  Church     .  .  .  .  ,  .161 

C.  The   UNFOLDING    OF   THE    BEAUTY    OF   THE     CROSS   IN   ECCLE- 

SIASTICAL Art  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .180 

D.  The     AFTER-EXPERIENCE      OF     THE    PAINS     OF     THE     CROSS     IN 

Asceticism        .  ....... 

E.  The  SOUNDING   OF  THE   DEPTHS   OF   THE  CrOSS   IN  THEOLOGY, 


ESPECIALLY   IN   THE   MYSTICAL  THEOLOGY 


227 


xvi  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


Chap.  VI.  The  Cross  in  the  Theology  and  Church  of 

THE  Reformation •         .268 

A.  The    spiritualising   of   the    Idea  of   the    Cross   by   the 

Theology  of  the  Reformation  .  .  .  .270 

B.  The   transformation  of  the  Cultic  use  of  the  Cross,  in 

accordance  with  the  Reformational  Spiritualising 
of  its  Idea,  and  the  Controversies  with  Romish 
Theologians  relating  thereto  .  .  •  .295 

c.  The  Idea  of  the  Cross  in  Modern  Art,  Religious  Poetry, 

and  Speculation        .  .  .  .  •  •  -3^° 

Chap.  VII.  The  Cross  in  the   Present   and   Future  of 

the  Church 34^ 


APPENDIX. 

ExcuRSE  I.  On   the    purely  ornamental  use  of  the  Symbol  of 

THE  Cross  upon  pre-Christian  Monuments.    .  .      373 

II.  Earlier    and    later   Opinions  with   regard   to   the 

Symbolic  Meaning  of  the  Egyptian  Ansate  Cross     379 

III.  Paradise,    according    to   earlier   and    more    recent 

Opinions       ........      3"^ 

IV.  Against    the    assertio.n    of    an    entire    Irreligious- 

ness  on  the  part  of  certain  Nations  .  .  •     393 

V.    Is     IT     POSSIBLE     THAT     ChRIST    WAS     CRUCIFIED     UPON     A 

Three-armed  Cross?    .  .  .  .  .  .401 

VI.  The    single    external    circumstances   and   proceed- 
ings IN  the  work  of  Crucifixion  ....      409 

VII.  History  of  the  Exposition  of  Ephes.   hi.  18,  as  com- 

pared WITH  Job  XI.  8,  9,   and  Psalm  cxxxix.   8—10     419 

VIII.  John  Scotus  Erigena  and  Fulbert  of  Chartres  as 

Singers  of  the  Cross  .....      426 

IX.  The  Sign  of  the  Returning  Son  of  Man  .  .429 


XVll 


MONOGRAPHIC  LITERATURE  ON  THE  CROSS 
AND  THE  SIGN  OF  THE  CROSS.^ 


COMPREHENSIVE  MONOGRAPHIC  DISCUSSIONS. 

*t  Jac.  Gretser,  S.  J.,  de  Cruce  Christi  rebusque  ad  earn  pertinentibus 
libri  iv.  Ingolstadii,  1598.  4to.  Tom.  ii.,  z^/^.,  1600.  Tom.  iii., 
ibid.,  1605. 

*f  de  Cruce  Christi,  t.  i.,  nunc  tertia  editione  multis  partibus 

auctus,  ut  ferme  novum  opus  videri  possit.     Ingolst.,  1608.    4to 
[Also  in  y.  Gretseri  opp.,  Ratisbon.,  1734  sqq.,  t.  i. — iii.] 
And.  Baudis  (jun.),  Crux  Christi  ex  historiarum  monumentis  con- 

structa.     Viteb.  \i.e.,  Vienna],  i66g.     4to. 
Chr.    Lud.    Schlichter,   De  cruce  apud  Judaeos,  Christianos,  et 
Gentiles  signo  salutis.     Hate,  1733.     4to. 

*  William  Haslam,  The  Cross  and  the  Serpent,  being  a  brief  history 

of  the  triumph  of  the  Cross  through  a  long  series  of  ages,  in 
prophecy,  types,  and  fulfilment.     Oxford,  1 849. 
W.  R.  Alger,  History  of  the  Cross,  Boston  (U.S.),  1858. 
J.  P.  Berjeau,  History  of  the  Holy  Cross,  London,  1863. 
H.  Dana  Ward,  History  of  the  Cross,  London,  1871. 
!  W.  C.  Prime,  Holy  Cross.     A  history  of  the  Wood  known  as  the  True 
i         Cross.     New  York  and  London,  1877. 

POLEMIC  WRITINGS   AGAINST  AND  IN    FAVOUR  OF  THE 
CULTIC  USE  OF  THE  CROSS. 

*  Guillaume  Farel,  Du  vray  usage  de  la  croix  de  Jesus  Christ,  et  de 

Tabus  et  de  Fidololatrie  commise  autour  d'icelle.     Geneve,  1560. 
i2mo. 
[Nouv.  ^dn.,  suivi  de  divers  ecrits  du  meme  auteur,  Geneve,  1865, 
8vo.] 

'  Those  writings  marked  with  an  asterisk  are  treated  with  more  or  less  of  detail, 
or  are  at  least  mentioned  in  the  course  of  our  dissertation.  The  works  of  Romish 
authors  are  indicated  by  a  f. 


XVlll  MONOGRAPHIC    LITERATURE. 

t  Martin  Eisengrein  (Convert  from  Protestantism,  Vice-Chancellor 

of  the  Univ.  of  Ingoldstadt  ;  t  i578)j  Von  dem  Zeichen  des  heil. 

Kreuzes,  dass  es  ein  recht  christlicher,  uralter,  apostolischer,  und 

in  Gottes   Wort  gegriindeter  Gebrauch,  auch   niitz   und  gut  sei. 

Ingolstadt,  1572.     4to. 
t  Alfonsus  Ciacconius,  Libellus  de  signis  sanctissimte  crucis,  i.e.,  de 

variis  crucis  apparitionibus,  priscis  et  novis.     Rom.,  1 591.     4to. 
t  Alanus  Copus,  De  Cruce. 
t  Arnold.    Mermannus  (t  1578),    De  veneratione  ss.   reliquiarum. 

Id.  :  De  rogationibus.     (Lovan.,  1566.) 
t  Augustin.  Fivizanius,  Libri  iii.  de  more  summo  Pontifici  crucem 

prseferendi,  Rom.,  1592. 

[These  three  are  cited  by  Gretser,  De  cruce,  t.  i.] 

*  JOH.  Arndt,  Iconographia  :  griindhcher  und  christHcher  Bericht  von 

Bildern,  ihrem  Ursprung,  rechtem  Gebrauch  und  Missbrauch  im 
A.  u.  N.  Test.  .  .  .  Von  den  Ceremonien  oder  Zeichen  des 
Creutzes,  auch  von  der  ausserhchen  Reverentz  und  Ehrerbietung 
gegen  den  hochgelobten  Namen  Jesu  Christi,  unseres  einigen 
Erlosers  und  Ehrenkonigs,  1596.     4to. 

*  Conrad.  Decker,  De  staurolatria  Romana,  libb.  ii.     Hanov.,  1617. 

8vo. 
t  Jac.  Bosius  (Mediolanensis,  eques  ord.   Mehtens.,  flor.  circ.   1610), 
Crux  triumphans  et  gloriosa.     Antverp.,  1617. 

*  Ezech.  Spanheim,  Discours  sur  la  Croix  de  notre  Seigneur.    Geneve, 

1655. 

*  JOANN.  Dall^us,  Adversus  Latinorum   de  cultus    religiosi  objecto 

lib.  v.,  cont.  argumenta  contra  Latinam  de  religioso  crucium  cultu 

traditionem  propria.     [Tom.    ii.,  p.   704 — 789,  ed.   Genev.,   1665. 

4to.] 
Chr.  Wildvogel,  De  venerabili  signo  Crucis.     Jenae,  1690.     4to. 
J.  A.  Schmid,  De  crucis  dominicae  per  Helenam,  Constantini  matrem, 

inventione.     Helmstad.,  17 14. 
Ch.  Godofr.  Richter  (G.  H.  Zeibich),  Dissertatio  de  signo  crucis  e 

templis  nostris  eliminando.     Viteb.,  1735.     4^0- 

*  J.  Jul.  Chr.  F(ulda),  De  crucis  signaculo,  Christianorum  precum 

comite  destinato.  Lips.,  1759.  (Contained  in  Volbeding's  Thes. 
cormnentatt.  selectarum,  torn,  i.,  p.  372  sqq.) 

ARCHEOLOGY  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST,  OR  OF  THE 
HISTORY  OF  THE  PASSION. 

*t  Justus  Lipsius,  De  cruce  libb.  iii.,  ad  sacram  profanamque  historiam 
utiles,  una  c.  notis,  Antverp.,  1595.  i2mo.  (Also  Amstel.,  1670; 
Vesal.  [Wesel],  1675  j  Antverp.,  1694,  etc.) 


MONOGRAPHIC    LITERATURE.  xix 

t  Joseph  Maria  Carracioli  (Cleric,  reg.  Neapolit.,  t  1656),  Dissert. 

de  titulo  crucis  e  sacras  et  profane  historiae  monumentis. 
'*'t  NiCQUET,  Titulus   s.   crucis,  seu  historia  et  mysterium   tituli  crucis. 
Par.,    1648  ;    Antverp.,    1670,      (Also   contd.    in    the   collection  : 
Authores  de  criice,  torn,  iv.,  Lugd.  Bat.,  1695.     i2mo.) 

*  Claud.  Salmasius  (t  1653),  De  cruce,  Epistolje  iii.  ad  Bartholinum, 

in  Thom.  Bartholini  diss,  de  latere  Christi  aperto,  Lugd.  Bat., 
1646. 

*  Thom.  Bartholinus  (Medic,  reg.  Dan.,  f  1680),  De  cruce  Christi 

hypomnemata  iv.     Havn.,  1651  ;  Amstel.,  1670. 
*t  Barthold.   Nihusius,  De  Cruce,  epistola  ad  Thom.  Bartholinum. 

Colon.,  1647. 
*t  Cornel.  Curtius,  Augustinianus,  De  clavis  dominicis  lib.     Antverp., 

1634. 

[The  three  last  also  combined  in  the  collection  Jtisti  Lipsii  et 

aliorum  de  Cruce  opuscc,  Vesal.,  1675.] 

Henr.  MiJLLER,  Historia  passionis,  crucifixionis  et  sepulturae  Domini 
nostri  J.  Christi,  notis  theologico-historico-criticis  illustrata. 
Rostoch.,  1661. 

[See  on   this  work  O.    Krabbe,   H.  Miiller   iind  seine  Zeit 
Rostock,  1866.] 

Henr.  Kipping  (t  1678),  Lib.  de  cruce  et  cruciariis,  in  Exercitatt 

XXXV.,  Brem.,  1679. 
Anton.   Byn.^us,  De  morte  J.    Christi  commentarius  amplissimus. 

Lib.  iii.     Amstel.,   i6gi  — 1698.      Also  in  German  :  Gekreutzigter 

Christus,  etc.     Cassel,  1701. 
Emundus  Merillius,  J.  C,  Notae  philologicse  in  passionem  Christi. 

Roterod.,  1693. 
Ant.    Balt.   Walther,   Juristisch-historische    Betrachtungen   iiber 

das  Leiden  und    Sterben  Jesu    Christi,  etc.     Bresl.  and   Leipzig, 

1738. 
Joh.  Val.    Henneberg,  Philol.-histor.  u.  krit.   Commentar   lib.  d. 

Geschichte  der  Leiden  und  des  Todes  Jesu.     Leipz.,  1822. 

*  J.  H.  Friedlieb,  Archaologie  der  Leidensgeschichte.     Bonn,  1843. 
JOH.   Wichelhaus,  Versuch  eines  ausiiihrlichen  Commentars  zu  d. 

Geschichte    des  Leidens  J.  Christi   nach   den  vier   Evv.     Halle, 
1855  (never  completed). 
*t  Jos.  Langen,  Dieletzten  Lebenstage  Jesu.     Freiburg  in  Br.     1864. 
A.  Ch.  a.  Zestermann,  Die  bildliche  Darstellung  des  Kreuzes  u.  der 
.  Kreuzigung  Christi.    (Zwei  Programme  der  Thomasschule.)    Leipz., 
1867,  1868.     4to. 
*t  Ph.    Degen,   Das  Kreuz   als  Strafwerkzeug  und   Strafe  der  Alten, 
Aachen,  1873.     (Progr.)     4to. 


XX  MONOGRAPHIC  LITERATURE, 

'^t  Carl  Friedrich,  Kritischer  Riickblick  auf  die  Literatur  iiber  die 
Geschichte  und  Archaologie  des  Krauzes.  {Bonn  Theol.  Litera- 
turbl.,  1875,  Nos.  17—19.) 

ART-HISTORY  OF  THE  CROSS  AND  CRUCIFIX. 

*t  Gretseri   de   cruce,   torn,   iii.,   lib.    i.:    De   numismat.   crucigeris ; 

lib.  ii. :  De  iitscriptionibus  crucigeris. 
*t  Bartholom.  Ricci,  S.  J.  (t  1613),  Triumphus  Jesu  Christi  crucifixi, 
cum  iconibus  martyrum  (auct.  A.  CoUaert).     Antverp.,  1614. 
Menckenii,  Diatribe  de  monogrammate  Christi.    (In  Dccad.  dissertatt. 
Acad.  Lips.,  1734,  iii.,  p.  85  sqq.) 
t  Phil,  de  Venutis  (Venutus),  De  cruce  Cortonensi  diss.     Liburni, 

1731- 
+  DOM.  GlORGi  (Georgius),  De  monogrammate  Christi  Domini.    Rom., 

1738. 
t  Paolo  Paciaudi,  De  veteri  Christi  crucifixi  signo  et  antiquis  crucibus, 

quas  Ravennae  sunt,  dissert,  (in  Gori  :  SymbolcE  literaria,  t.  iii., 

1748,  p.  211). 
t  L.,  Ant.  Muratorl,  Diss.  21  :  de  cruce  Nolana  (in  Antiqu.  Ital., 

t.ii.) 
Jo.  E.  Imm.  Walch,  De  antiqua  cruce  stationali  asrea  inaurata  diss. 

(in  Miscell.  Lips,  nov.,  vol.  ix..  p.  i,  Lips.,  1752). 
t  Steph.  Borgia,  De  cruce  Vaticana.     Rom.,  1779. 
•\ ,  De  cruce  Veliterna.     Rom.,  1780. 

*  F.  Muenter,  Sinnbilder  und  Kunstvorstellungen  der  alten  Christen. 

Altona,  1825.    (S.  68  ff.) 

t  DiDRON,    Manuel  d'Iconographie  chretienne.     Paris,  1845. 

■f-  ,  Annales  archdologiques,  Par.  1844,  sqq.  {passim). 

*t  J-  B.  DE  Rossi,  Inscriptiones  christianse  urbis  Romse  sept,  sceculo 
antiquiores.  Rom.,  1857  sqq.  Id.:  De  christianis  titulis  Cartha- 
giniensibus.  Par.,  1858. — Id.:  De  christ.  monumentis  IXGYN 
exhibentibus.  Par.,  1855.  (Both  originally  in  Pitra,  Spicilegium 
Solesmense,  torn,  iii.,  iv.) 

f  Garrucci,  II  crocifisso  graffito  in  casa  dei  Cesari.     Rom.,  1857. 

*  Ferd.  Becker,  Das  Spottcrucifix  der  romischen  Kaiserpalaste  aus 

dem  Anf.  des  3  Jahrhdts.,  erlautert.     Bresl.,  1863. 

*  E.   aus'm   Weerth,    Das    Siegeskreuz    der    byzantinischen    Kaiser 

Constantin  VII.      Porphyrogenitus  u.      Romanus  II.,   etc.,  etc., 

erlautert.     Bonn,  1866.     (Large  fol.) 
*t  P-   J-   MUENZ,  Archaol.   Bemerkungen  iiber  das  Kreuz,  das  Mono 

gramm  Christi,  die  altchristlichen  Symbole,  das  Crucifix.     Frankft. 

a.  M.,  1867. 
*t  J.  Stockbauer,  Kunst*^eschichte  des  Kreuzes.     Die  bildl.  Darstellung 


MONOGRAPHIC  LITERATURE.  xxi 

des  Erlosungstodes    Christi  im  Monogramm,  Kreuz,  u.  Crucifix. 
Schafthausen,  1870. 

*  F.  Piper,  Der  Baum  des  Lebens.     {Evangel.  Kalend.    Jahrg.,  1863, 

S.  17— 94-) 
Llewellynn  Jewitt,  The  Cross,  in  Nature  and  in   Art.      (Eight 

papers,  illustrated,  in  the  Art  Journal,  1874.) 
Alfred  Rimmer,  Ancient  Stone  Crosses  of  England.     Lond.,  1875. 

*  Richard  Morris,   Legends  of  the  Holy   Rood  ;    Symbols  of  the 

Passion    and  Cross.     Poems,  in  old    Engl,  of  the  xi.,  xiv.,  and 
XV.  Centuries.     Lond.,  187 1. 

*  E.  Schroeder,  Van  dem  holte  des  hilligen  Creuzes.     Middle  Low- 

Germ,  poem  ;  edited  with  Germ,  introduction,  notes,  and  glossary. 
Erlang.,  1869. 
*t  A.  BiRLlNGER,  Die  deutsche  Sage,  Sitte,  u.  Literatur  in  Predigt  und 
Legendenbiichern.     (Austrian  Vierteljahrschr.  f.  Kath.  Theologie, 
Bd.  xii.,  1873,  ii-j  "i-) 

*  A.  MUSSAFIA,  Sulla  legenda  del  legno  della  croce.     Vienna,  1870. 

*  A.  Freybe,  Der  Karfreitag  in  der  deutschen  Dichtung.     Giitersloh, 

1877.      [A  companion  volume  to  MORRIS'  Legends  of  the  Holy 
Rood.'] 

ARCHEOLOGY  OF  THE  PRE-CHRISTIAN  RELIGIOUS 
CROSS-SYMBOLS. 

*  L.  Dassovius,  Signa  crucis  gentis  Hebraeae,  Kil.     1695. 

J.  Ch.  Harenberg,  Exercitatio  de  Crucis  signo,  symbolo  salutis 
frontibus  Israelitarum  imponendo,  ad  Ezech.  ix.  4.  (In  the  Bibl. 
Brem.hist.-philol.  theol.,  Class.,  vi.,  fasc.  6.) 

Chr.  L.  Schlichter,  De  cruce  apud  Judasos,  Christ,  et  Gentiles. 
(Vid.  supra.) 
*t  M.  Letronne,  Examen  archeologique  de  ces  deux  questions  :  i.  La 
croix  ansde  egyptienne  a-t-elle  ^t^  employee  par  les  Chretiens 
d'Egypt pour exprimerlemonogrammedu Christ.''  2.  Retrouve-t-on 
ce  symbole  sur  des  monuments  antiques  Strangers  a  I'Egypte  ?  in 
the  Memoir es  de  I' Acad,  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles-Lettres,  tome 
xvi.,  1846,  p.  236  sqq. 

Raoul-Rochette,  De  la  croix  ansee,  ou  d'un  signe  qui  lui  ressemble 
considerde  principalement  dans  ses  rapports  avec  le  symbole 
egyptien  sur  des  monuments  etrusques  et  asiatiques.  {lb.,  p.  285 
sqq.) 

Huzard,  Observations  sur  I'origine  et  la  signification  du  syn\boIe 
appele  la  croix  ansee.     {lb.,  tom.  xvii.) 

L.  Mueller,  Ueber  Sterne,  Kreuze,  und  Kreise  als  religiose  Symbole 
der  alten  Culturvolker.     Copenhagen,  1864. 


XXll  MONOGRAPHIC    LITERATURE. 

*  Ed.  Rapp,  Das  Labarum  und  der  Sonnencultus.     (In  the  Jahrhb.  des 

Vereins  von  Alterthumsfrciinden  im  Rheinlande.  Double  part, 
xxxix.,  xl.)     Bonn,  1866. 

*  Gabr.  de  Mortillet,  Le  Signe  de  la  Croix  avant  le  Christianisme. 

Paris,  1866. 
Ernst  von  Bunsen,  Das  Symbol  des   Kreuzes  bei  alien  Nationen, 
und  die  Entstehung  des  Kreuz-Symbols  der  Chr.  Kirche.      Berlin, 
1876. 

DEVOTIONAL  AND  THEOSOPHIC-MYSTIC  LITERATURE.' 

*  JOANN.  Chrysostomi  de  Cruce  et  Latrone  homil.  duo.     {0pp..,  t.  ii., 

p.  402 — 421,  ed.  Montf.) 
* de  Coemeterio  et  Cruce.     {II?.,  p.  396  sqq.) 

*  Ambrosii  de  Cruce  Serm.  55  et  56.     {0pp.,  t.  iii.,  p.  280  sqq.) 

*  Leonis    Magn.     Serm.    xix.    de    passione    Domini.     (In    Migne'S 

Patrologia,  Ser.  i.,  t.  54,  p.  313 — 384.) 

*    Serm.  de  persecutione  et  cruce  ferenda,  s.  de  quadrages. 

Serm.  ix.     {lb.,  p.  294  sqq.) 

*  Nicet.«    Paphlag.,    Orat.    in   exaltat.   ven.   Crucis.      (In    Combefis, 

Anctar.  Bibl.  patrjtm  novissiin.     Par.  1672,  i.,  p.  440  sqq.) 
Pseudochiysostomi  Homilia  in  venerab.  ac  vivificam  crucem.     (In  0pp. 
Chrys.,  ed.  Montf.,  t.  ii.,  p.  820  sqq.) 

*  Variorum  orationes   encomiasticas  de  inventione  S.  Crucis,  item  de 

exaltatione  et  de  adoratione  S.  Crucis.  (Alexand.  monach.,  Georg. 
Hamartolos,  Sophron.  Hierosol.,  Andreas  Cretens.,  Joseph.  Thes- 
salonicens.,  etc.)         [In  Gretseri  de  Cruce,  t.  ii.] 

*  Rhabanus  Maurus,  De  laudibus  S.  Crucis.     {0pp.,  X.  i.,  p.  133—294, 

ed.  Migne.) 

*  Pseudo-Anselmi  De  mensuratione  Crucis. 

*  Bonaventura,  Lignum  vita^.     {0pp.,  t.  v.,  p.  393  sqq.,  ed.  Venet., 

1 7  54-) 

*  Berthold    of    ReGENSBURG,    Sermon  :    Von   dem    heren    kriuze. 

(Pfeiffer,  Berthold,  etc.     1862,  Bd.  i.,  S.  537—548-) 

*  Angela    of    Foligno,    Theologia    Crucis.     ("  Die    Theologie    des 

Kreuzes  J.  Christi " — in  G.  Terstegen,  Ausei'leseiie  Lebens- 
beschreibungen  heiliger  Seeleti,  Bd.  ii.,  St.  5,  K.  13.) 
Comp.  her  Vita  by  Arnoldus  (in  AA.  SS.  Boll.,  t.  i.,  4  Jan.),  and  specially 
her  Passus  spirittiales,  etc.,  c.  lO,  therein  given.  Also  B.  Angela  de  Ftdignio, 
ostendens  veram  viam,  qua  possumus  sequi  vestigia  Redemptoris.  Colon., 
1601.  Also,  Der  hell.  Angela  v.  Foligno  Geschichte  und  Unterweisungen 
in  deutscher  Bearbeitung  von  Lammertz.     Coin.,  1851. 

'  We  confine  ourselves  to  the  mention  of  such  works  as  expressly  indicate  by 
their  title  their  relation  to  the  cross,  taken  in  a  material  or  a  purely  spirilual- 
mystical  sense. 


* 


MONOGRAPHIC    LITERATURE.  xxIH 

THOMiE  A  Kempis,  Serm.  de  cruce  quotidie  tollenda  in  relig.  assumpta, 

(Sermon,  ad  Novit.,  part,  iii.) 

[Serm.,  tom.  i.,  p.  67 — 76,  ed.  Sommal.] 
Concio  seu  meditatio  de  cruce  Jesu,  quam  pro  nobis  ipse 

portavit  ;    item,    De   merito   dominicse   passionis   et   dignitate   s. 

crucis.     (Concion.  s.  meditatt.  Nos.  23  and  24.) 

[Tom.  ii.,  p.  205  sqq.,  208  sqq.,  ed.  Somm.] 
HiERNON.  Savonarola,  II  trionfo  della  Croce,  1497.     Triumphus 

crucis  sive  de  veritate  fidei,  libb.  iv.,  recens  in  lucem  edit.     Lugd. 

Bat,  1633.     i2mo. 
M.    Luther,   Feine   christl.    Gedanken   der   alten  heil.     Viiter  und 

Lehrer  der  Kirche,  dass  ein  Christ  das  Kreuz,  so  ihm  von  Gott 

aufgelegt  ist,  mit  Geduld  tragen  solle.     1530.     {Erlang.  edn.,  Bd. 

Ixiv.,  S.  298  ff.) 

,  Sermonen  von  Kreuz  und  Leiden.     {Erl.  Aicsg.,  xvii.,  40 ff.  ; 

XX.,  309  ff.) 

,    Predigten    am    Kreuzerfindungstage   und   am    Kreuzerhe- 


bungstage.     {E.  A.,  xv.,  333  ff.  ;  455  ff.) 

*  Ph.  Melancthon,  Loc.  de   calamitatibus  et  de  cruce,  et   de  veris 

consolationibus.  (In  the  Loci  comm.  tert.  setat.,  Corp.  Re/., 
t.  xxi.,  p.  934  sqq.) 

*  JOH.  Brentius,  Etlich  TractetH  (1528):  Wie  das  Holz  des  Krauzes 

behauen  und  am  weichsten  angegriffen  werden  soil,  u.  s.  f.  (In 
J.  Hartmann,  yoh.  Brens,  Ledeti  nnd  ausgewdhlte  Scliriften,  S 
322  ff.) 

[On  other  works  of  Brenz,  Urban.  Rhegius,  etc.,  falling  under 
this  head,  see  Chap.  VI.,  pp.  286 — 290.] 

*  JOH.  Calvinus,  De  crucis  tolerantia,  quse  est  pars  abnegationis  sui. 

(De  souffrir  patiemment  la  croix,  qui  est  une  partie  de  renoncer  k 

nous  mesmes) :  Ins  tit.  Relig.  Christ.,  lib.  iii.,  ch.  8,  ed.  1559  sqq. 
*•     Petri  Martyris,  De  cruce  et  afflictionibus  perferendis.     {Loci  comm. 

theolog.,  Basil,  1580.     Loc.  xii.,  tom.  i.,  p.  1193 — 1212.) 
LUD.  Lavater  (Bullinger's  Son-in-law,  t  1586),  De  crucis  tolerantia. 

Tigur.,  seq.  ann. 
Leonard.  Culmann,  An  crux  expediat  vel  noceat  (in  loc.  Joh.  xvi.  7 : 

Expedit  ut  ego  vadam).     Norimb.,  1550.    8vo. 
t  John  Marshall,  Treatise  of  the  Cross.     Antv.,  1564. 
t  ,  A  Reply  to  Mr.  Calfhill's  Blasphemous  Answer  against  the 

Treatise  of  the  Cross.     Lovan.,  1566. 
A.  Greyfenberg,  Die  Lehre  vom  Creutz  der  Christen  in  4  Haubt- 

artikel    geteilet    und  zu  Wittenberg  in  fiinf  Predigten   ausgelegt. 

Wittenberg,  1567. 
Christ.  Vischer,  Trostschrift,  wie  sich  ein  Christ  in  allerlei  Creutz 

trosten  solle.     Schmalkalden,  1570. 


XXIV  MONOGRAPHIC    LITERATURE. 

M.    SCULTETUS,  Warer  Christen   Creutz.     In    diesen  kiimmerlichen 
Zeiten    alien    hochbetriibten   vnd    vilgeplagten    Creutztragern   zu 
Unterricht  und  Trost  beschrieben.     Zerbst,  1592.      8vo. 
t  Jac.  Gretseri,  Hortus  S.  Crucis.     Ingolst.,  1610,  1630,  etc. 

t ,  Signa  crucis,  d.  i.  ein  lustiger  und  niitzlicher  Tractat  von 

dem  Zeichen  des  heil.     Creutzes,  aus  dem  Lat.  verdeutscht  durch 
Carolum  Stengelium.     Ingolst.,  161 2. 
t  Matth.  Tympius,  Creutz-Fahnlein.     Miinster,  1619.     4to. 
JOH.  Heermann  (t  1647  at  Lissa),  Crux  Christi  oder  die  schmerz- 
reiche  Marterwoche  unseres  Heilands,  1618.     (New  edn.,  Ruppin, 
1861.) 

,  Heptalogus  Christi,  oder  die  sieben  Worte  am  Kreuz,  1619. ' 

(Berlin,  1856.) 
Thom.  Draxonis  (Draxe,  or  Drake,  of  Warwick,  f  1616),  Synopsis 
consolatoria,   s.    spiritualia  et   selectissima   Consilia,  remedia,  et 
lenimenta  adversus  crucem.     Francof.,  1618.     8vo. 
Charles  Drelincourt  (t  1669),  Le  triomphe  de  I'Eglise  sous  la 
Croix.     Geneve,  1630. 
t  Louis  Grandis,  Les  perfections  de  Dieu  connues  par  la  Croix.     Par. 
1642. 

*  Joachim  Betkius,  Mysterium  crucis  oder  Erinnerung  derer  Geheim- 

nissen  und  Krafft  des  Creutzes  Christi.     Berlin,  1637.     Frankf., 

1646  and  1647, 
J.  J.  Rued,  Seelen-Apoteck,  oder  Labsal  und  Erquickung  in  allerhand 

Creutz  und  Triibsalen.     Niirnberg,  1653. 
JOH.   Hemming,  Jesu   Christi   meditatio   sacra  de  passione   Christi 

simulque  de  crucis  ligno  et  signo  eiusque  usu  et  abusu.     Han., 

1657.     4to. 
And.  Dan.  Habichhorst  (t  1704),  De  crucifixione  Christi  satisfactoria 

in  medio  malefactorum  facta,   ex  ratione  Is.   liii.,  Ps.   xxii.,  etc. 

Gryphiswald.,  1681.     4to. 

*  Chr.  Scriver,  Seelenschatz,  oder  von  der  menschlichen  Seele  hoher 
'^  Wiirde,  tiefem  und  klaglichem  Siindenfalle,  Busse  und  Erneuerung 

durch  Christum,  gottlichem  heiligen  Leben,  vielfaltigem  Kreuze 
und  Trost  im  Kreuz,  etc.,  etc.  Magdeburg,  1681,  1692.  Magd. 
and  Leipzig,  1737,  and  frequently. 

*  Ph.  Gottl.  Spener,  Das  Kreuz.     (Sermons  on  John  xvi.  16 — 23,  in 

"  Evangelischer  Glaubenstrost  aus  den  gottlichen  Wohlthaten,"  etc. 
Frankfurt,  1694.) 
J.  Quirsfeld,  Geistliches  Myrrhengartlein,  versetzt  mit  50  traurigen 
Cypressen,  worunter  die  geangstigte  Seele  in  allerlei  Creutz  und 
Widerwartigkeiten  mit  Christo  ihr  trostliches  Gesprch  haalt. 
Leipzig,  1696. 


MONOGRAPHIC  LITERATURE.  XXV 

Geistliche  Kranken-Apothek,  d.  i.  christliche  Unterweisung,  wie  Kranke 

und    Sterbende    ihr    Kreuz    geduldig  tragen  konnen.     Stuttgart, 

1703. 
Ch.  a.    Hausen,    Theologia  paradetica  generalis  et  specialis,    oder 

griindliche  Erklarung  von  der  Christen  Kreuz  und  Trost  in  Pre- 

digten.     2  vols.     Dresden,  1706,  1723. 
Luck.  Stoeckel,  Creutzschule  der  glaubigen  Kinder  Gottes.    Oppen- 

heim,  161 1. 
Phil.  Kegel,  Geistliche  Kampfschul,  welcher  maassen  ein  christl. 

Ritter  die  Miihseligkeit  dieses  Lebens  erdulden  soil,  etc,     Leipzig, 

1616. 
Thom.  Tilandri,  Schola  cruets  et  Incis  in  etlichen  Predigten.     Ros- 
tock, 1616.     4to. 
Ben.  Hefteri,  Schola  crucis,  Antverp.,  1629. 

,  Via  regia  crucis,  ib.,  1654. 

Valentin  Wudrian,  Schola  crucis.  Creuzschul.     Stralsund,  1641 ; 

Bremen,  1641,  (and  often  elsewhere).     Also  Latin  :  Schola  crucis  et 

tessera  Christianismi,  LUneburg,  1666. 
Heinr.    Mueller,    Creutz,  Buss,   und    Betschule,   vorgestellet  von 

David  im  143  Psalm  und  der  Gemeine  Christi  zu   St.  Marien  in 

Rostock  in  zweijcihrigen  Bett-Stunden  geoffnet.     Rostock,    1661. 

i2mo.     Third  edn.,  ib.  1665.     (Also  republished  there  1671,  1674; 

Frankf.,  1668,  1671,  1674,  1687,  and  frequently  besides.) 
JOH.  Olearius,  Christliche  Geduldschule  sammt  herzerquickendem 

Troste.     Halle,  1668. 
Francisci  Simeonis,  Gymnasium  Crueis.      Creutzschule,  gerichtet 

auf  die  sonntiigliche  Evangelia.     Hamburg,  1670. 
JOH.  Feinler,  Wahrer  Christen  Creutz-Schul.     Naumburg,  1676. 
JOH.  Weidner,  Glaubiger  Kinder  Gottes  Kreuzschule.     Augsburg, 

1731- 
Magn.    Friedr.    Roos,    Kreuzschule,    oder    Anweisung    zu     einem 

christlichen    Verhalten    unter    dem    Leiden.       Tubingen,    1779. 

Stuttg.,  1857.     (7th  edn.,  1875.) 
Myst^re  de  la  Croix  affligeante  et  consolante,  mortifiante  et  vivi- 

fiante,  humiliante  et  triomphante,  de  J^sus-Christ  et  de  ses  Mem- 

bres.     Par  un  disciple  de  la  Croix  de  Jesus.     1732.     Nouv.  edit. 

Lausanne,    1791.     (German  :    Das  Geheimniss  des  Kreuzes  Jesu 

Christi  und  seiner  Glieder.     Leipzig,  1782.) 
JOH.  Friedr.  v.  Meyer,  Das  Kreuz  Christi.     Blatter f.  hoh.  Wahr- 

heit,  Bd.  vii.     (Smaller  collection,  Bd.  ii.,  S.  438  ff.) 
GOTTFR.    Menken,    Ueber   die   eherne   Schlange  und  das   symbol. 

Verhaltniss  derselben   zur  Person  und  Geschichte  Jesu   Christi. 

1812.      (Gesamm.  Schriften,  Bd.  vi.,  S.  351  ft".     Bremen,  1858.) 


xxvl  MONOGRAPHIC  LITERATURE. 

*  Franz  Theremin,  Das  Kreuz  Christi,  4  vols.     Berlin,  1828— 1841. 

*  ^.  W.   Krummacher,  Der  Leidende  Christus.     Ein  Passionsbuch. 

Bielefeld,    1854.      (Also   English  :    The    Suffering   Saviour.      8th 
edition.) 

*  B.  A.  Langeein,  Das  Wort  vom  Kreuze.     Sermons  delivered  in  the 

years  1857 — 1860.     4  vols.    Leipzig. 
E.  Scheele,  Das  Kreuz  J.  Christi.     Passions-  und  Osterpredigten. 

Halle,  1857. 
(Under  this  head  also  fall  the  numerous  published  discourses  of  more  recent 

times  on  "The  Seven  Words  of  Jesus  upon  the  Cross,"  by  F.  Arndt,  1842  ; 

F.    W,   Langer,    1842;    Ph.    Bridel,  Lausanne,   1851  ;  W.    Lohe,    1859; 

H.  Dalton,  1871  ;  C.  J.  Vaughan,  Lond.,  1875,  etc.) 
CiESAR   Malan,  The  True   Cross.      London,    1838.      Latest  edn., 

1872. 
E.  DE  Pressense,  The  Mystery  of  Suffering.     Lond.,  1869. 
D.  Greswell,  Colloquia  Crucis.     Lond.,  1871. 

*  A.  B.  Mack  AY,  The  Glory  of  the  Cross.     2nd  edn.     Lond.,  1877. 

*  R,  M'Cheyne  Edgar,  The  Philosophy  of  the  Cross.     Lond.,  1874. 

8vo. 


INTRODUCTION. 


"  Faith  of  the  cross,  thou  only  combinest,  in  one 
Wreath,  the  twofold  palm  at  once  of  meekness  and  strength." 


IT  was  a  phenomenon  pertaining  to  the  outward  circle  of 
the  salutary  operations  of  Christianity,  in  which  Schiller 
thus  recognised  the  unique  character  of  Christianity  itself 
The  proud  spectacle  of  the  Knights  of  the  Hospital  of  St. 
John,  adorned  and  defended  by  the  sign  of  redemption, 
taught  him  to  understand  the  profound  combination — 
nowhere  else  recurring  in  history — of  lowliness  and  majesty, 
by  which  our  religion  has  for  nearly  two  thousand  years  cele- 
brated its  triumphs.  More  deeply  still  would  he  have  com- 
prehended our  religion — and  that  not  as  a  "combining  of 
humility  and  strength  "  displayed  once  for  all,  but  as  one 
constantly  and  powerfully  exerting  itself — if  he  had  been 
able  to  derive  his  knowledge  of  it,  not  from  an  admiring  re- 
flection upon  the  deeds  of  those  knights,  wrought  under  the 
banner  and  in  the  armour  of  the  cross,  but  from  a  believing 
contemplation  of  the  Crucified  One  Himself,  and  from  a 
loving  self-absorption  in  the  mystery  of  His  sufferings.  The 
fact  that  this  latter  way  remained  closed  to  him,  affects  not, 
or  not  essentially,  the  truth  of  that  which  he  did  learn. 
Christianity  presents  a  synthesis  of  weakness  and  strength,  of 
dying  and  living,  of  self-humiliation  and  exaltation,  such  as 
has  never  been  attained  in  any  other  religion.  And  the 
cross  is  the  emblem  of  this  its  peculiar  essence,  an  emblem 


xxviu  introj:)UCtion. 

of  so  much  the  more  apt  significance,  and  so  much  the  more 
effective  operation,  in  proportion  as  the  historic  fact  which 
imparts  to  it  its  significance,  is  seen  to  be  of  a  more  serious 
and  real  nature,  and  the  more  perfectly  all  poetic  caprice  and 
fantastic  combination  has  been  excluded  in  raising  it  to  be  the 
symbol  of  that  religion  which  is  to  hold  sway  over  the  world. 
The  cross  is  the  deeply  significant  symbol  of  the  Christian 
faith,  and  yet  religious  significance  attaches  to  it  not  merely 
within  the  bounds  of  Christianity.  It  is  not  so  exclusively 
an  emblem  of  faith  in  Christ  as  to  appear,  beyond  the  sphere 
thereof,  only  in  the  form  of  ordinary  embellishment,  as  a 
meaningless  ornament  or  an  unimportant  thing  of  chance. 
The  cross  plays  an  important  part  as  a  religious  symbol, 
even  in  the  history  of  the  pre-Christian  and  extra-Christian 
religions.  We  meet  with  it  under  various  modifications,  alike 
of  its  external  form  and  character  as  also  of  its  import,  among 
the  extra-Christian  nations  of  antiquity  as  of  the  present  day, 
of  the  Old  as  of  the  New  World.  Rude  and  barbarous  peoples 
of  the  torrid  as  of  the  temperate  zones,  and  representatives 
of  almost  every  stage  of  heathen  civilisation — Greeks  and 
Romans,  dwellers  by  the  Nile,  as  by  the  Ganges,  Godavery, 
and  Indus,  aborigines  of  the  new  discovered  North,  Central, 
and  South  America,  and  islanders  of  the  South  Sea — have 
placed  this  mysterious  symbol  upon  their  monuments.  Only 
in  rarer  cases  can  a  purely  mundane  {profaii),  significance 
be  shown  to  attach  to  these  cruciform  signs  which  adorn  the 
monuments  of  heathendom.  The  entire  absence  of  any  kind 
of  religious  import  appears  in  the  case  of  most  of  them  more 
difficult  of  supposition,  than  their  destination  to  some  kind  or 
other  of  cultic  end — though  this  end  may  often  remain 
scarcely  discernible,  or  may  in  the  course  of  time  have  fallen 
into  oblivion,  and  the  cruciform  figure  in  question  may  thus 
have  sunk  down  almost  to  a  mere  ornament,  or  garniture 
without  significance.^  Nay,  a  certain  general  identity  of 
nature  in  the  religious  significance  of  these  extra-Christian 

'  See  Appendix  I.  :  On  the  purely  ornamental  use  of  the  Symbol  of 
THE  Cross  upon  pre-Christian  Monuments. 


INTRODUCTION.  Xxix 

cross-symbols  with  that  of  our  rehgion  is  susceptible  of  proof. 
They  are  either,  as  in  the  majority  of  cases,  emblematic  of 
Blessing,  and  thus  express  a  religious  consciousness  directed 
positively  to  the  Divine,  and  thence  beneficially  affected  and 
satisfied  ;  or  they  are  symbols  of  the  CURSE,  and  thus  serve 
only  to  express  a  consciousness  disposed  in  a  negatively 
religious  manner,  one  which  remains  unreconciled  and 
obdurate  under  the  experience  of  the  Divine  wrath  ■  against 
sin.  The  two  forces,  that  of  the  curse  and  that  of  the  blessing, 
that  of  death  and  that  of  life,  of  wrath  and  of  grace,  brought 
into  immediate  oneness  in  the  Cross  of  Christ,  regularly 
diverge  from  each  other  in  the  typical  phenomena  of  the  pre- 
Christian  religious  life;  yea,  they  appear  almost  always 
abruptly  severed,  and  opposed  the  one  to  the  other,  so  that 
it  is  either  divinely  blessing  (agathodaemonic)  powers,  or 
hellishly  condemning  and  destroying  ones  (cacodsemonic, 
typhonic),  which  seem  to  manifest  themselves  therein.  A 
shadowy  expectation  that  the  place  of  the  curse  might  and 
would  one  day  become  the  place  where  the  fountain  of  bless- 
ing and  salvation  is  opened  for  the  suffering,  God-estranged 
humanity,  does  not  appear  clothed  in  any  other  form  than  in 
one  extremely  obscure  and  indefinite,  either  in  Heathendom 
or  even  in  Judaism.  To  the  height  of  a  clear  prophetic  pre- 
science it  does  not  appear  developed  even  in  the  case  of  the 
most  enlightened  men  of  God  under  the  Old  Covenant. 

A  preparatory  consideration  of  these  varied  pre-Christian 
forms  and  characters  of  the  cross  as  a  religious  symbol  is 
seen  to  be  the  more  indispensably  necessary,  in  proportion 
as  they  have  frequently  been  uncritically  reviewed,  and 
inasmuch  as  unfounded  conjectures — whether  in  favour  of,  or 
adverse  to,  the  absolute  value  of  Christianity  and  its  character 
as  a  revelation — have  not  seldom  been  attached  to  them. 
From  the  time  that  the  erratic  philosopher  of  Norwich,  Sir 
Thomas  Browne  (b.  1605,  d.  1682), — by  means  of  his  Religio 
Medici  (1642),  and  his  Enquiries  into  Vulgar  and  Common 
Errors  (1646),  one  of  the  most  influential  pioneers  of  the 
British  Scepticism  or   Deism — in   his  quixotic   treatise,  The 


XXX  INTRODUCTION. 

Gaf^deu  of  Cyrus  (i6sS),^ -presented  an  uncritical  combination 
of  an  incredibly  large  number  of  cruciform  figures,  from 
heathen  and  Jewish  sources,  and,  half  with  mystic,  half 
with  sceptical  intent,  sought  to  demonstrate  everywhere 
the    presence    of    his   favourite    symbol    of    the    Quincunx 

*  * 
* 

*  * 

in  such  wise  that,  in  the  words  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,  he  would 
find  "quincunxes  in  heaven  above,  quincunxes  in  earth 
below,  quincunxes  in  the  mind  of  man,  quincunxes  in  tones, 
in  optic  nerves,  in  roots  of  trees,  in  leaves,  in  everything,"^ 
from  that  time  a  great  deal,  even  if  not  excessively  much 
that  is  untenable  and  one-sided,  has  been  written  upon 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  as  this  appears  beyond  the  bounds  of 
Christendom.  Some,  after  the  example  of  Gibbon,  the  his- 
torian of  "  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  have 
censured  with  bitter  scorn  as  absurd  and  useless  the  seeking 
of  cruciform  figures  "  in  almost  every  object  of  art  or  nature," 
on  the  part  of  the  Church  Fathers  and  later  Christian 
authors.  With  others,  as  in  the  case  of  the  English  clergy- 
man William  Haslam  (1849),  the  American  W.  R.  Alger 
(1858),  the  French  writer  De  Mortillet  (1866),  the  danger  of 
an  over-hasty  apologetic  tendency,  carried  to  the  length  of 
the  fantastic,  has  not  been  wholly  avoided  in  this  domain. 
Haslam,  for  example,  in  all  earnestness  represents  the  cross, 
too,  as  being  revealed  to  our  first  parents  immediately  after 
the  fall,  along  with  the  promise  of  the  ultimate  victory  of  the 
seed  of  the  woman  over  the  serpent,  and  as  the  means  of  this 
victory.  He  speaks  of  a  formal  prophecy  of  the  cross  within 
and  without  the  sphere  of  Old  Testament  revelation,  and 
maintains  that  the  cross  was,  in  these  predictions  of  the  first 
age,  just  as  now  in   Christendom,  "the  external  sign  of  a 

'  [Originally  appended  to  his  Hydrotaphia.,  or  Urn  Burial  {i6'^Z')J\ 
^  Compare  the  eighth  edition  of  the  wonderful  book,  "  The  Garden  of  Cyrus ; 
or  the  Quincuncial  Lozenge,  or  Network  Plantations  of  the  Ancients,  artificially, 
naturally,  mystically  considered,"  contained  in  the  new  edition  of  the  works  of  Sir 
Thomas  Browne.     (Bohn's  edition,  London  1852,  vol.  ii.) 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxl 

hidden  mystery,  connected  with  Divine  promise."  Noah  was 
acquainted  with  the  cross  as  a  sacred  sign  before  the  time  of 
the  dispersion  of  the  nations — yea,  even  before  the  flood. 
Even  Adam  was  acquainted  with  the  cross  ;  even  to  him  there 
was  communicated  by  the  Almighty  a  knowledge  of  this 
sacred  sign.^  In  opposition  to  such  extravagances  of  a  mys- 
tically trifling  uncritical  apologetics,  the  pre-Christian  sign 
of  the  cross  is  scarcely  at  all  mentioned  in  many  writings 
in  which  we  should  expect  to  meet  with  it ;  e.  g.,  in  the 
well-known  work  of  H.  Liiken,  "The  Traditions  of  the 
Human  Race,  or  the  Primitive  Revelation  of  God  among 
the  Heathen,"  (2  Aufl.,  1869),  in  which  the  subject  is  only 
once  touched  upon,  and  then  by  no  means  discussed  in  the 
thorough  manner  and  with  the  amount  of  critical  considera- 
tion which  it  merits.  Others,  as  the  investigations  of  the 
French  Academicians  Letronne  and  Rochette,  hereafter  to  be 
frequently  cited,  the  meritorious  dissertation  of  Ed.  Rapp,  on 
"The  Labarum  and  the  Sun  Worship,"  and  the  learned  pro- 
programmes  of  Dr.  A.  Ch.  A.  Zestermann  on  "The  Figurative 
Representation  of  the  Cross  or  the  Crucifixion  of  Christ,"^  call 
attention  to  only  a  part  of  the  various  forms  and  relations 
under  which  the  Cross  plays  a  part  in  the  history  of  pre- 
Christian  civilisation  and  religion  ;  thus  indirectly  themselves 
invite  to  a  complementing  of  that  which  they  present,  in  the 
interest  of  a  general  comprehension  in  one  of  the  whole  of  the 
examples  falling  under  the  point  of  view  of  the  pre-Christian 
religious  representation  of  the  Cross. 

Such  general  review  must  therefore  prepare  the  way  for  our 

'  Rev.  W.  Haslam,  The  Cross  and  the  Serpent,  being  a  brief  History  of  the  Tri- 
umph of  the  Cross  through  long  Series  of  Ages,  etc.  (Oxford,  1849,)  p.  885,  p.  127. 
Of  a  like  character,  but  more  sober,  Rev.  W.  R.  Alger,  History  of  the  Cross, 
Boston,  1858,  as  also  Gabriel  de  Mortillet,  Le  Signe  de  la  Croix  avant  le 
Christianisme,  Paris,  1866.  With  the  latter,  of  whose  interesting  and  beautifully 
illustrated  vs^ork  we  shall  speak  more  fully  in  Appendix  I.,  many  points  of  agree- 
ment are  presented  by  F.  de  Rougemont,  Le  peuple  primitif,  i.  267  sqq. 

^  i.  Abth.,  Das  Kreuz  vor  Christus  (48  pp.  4to).  ii.  Abth.,  Die  Kreuzigung  bet 
den  Alien  (52  pp.  4to),  Leipzig,  1867,  1868.  Upon  this  work  of  Zestermann 
the  Aachen  Realschulprogramm  of  Dr.  Ph.  Degen  is  almost  entirely  based. 


xxxil  INTRODUCTION. 

subsequent  contemplation  of  the  Cross  within  the  limits  of 
Christendom,  historically  and  in  relation  to  the  philosophy  of 
history.  Of  the  two  lines  of  the  representation  of  the  symbol 
of  redemption,  the  positively  and  the  negatively  religious,  or 
the  agathodsemonic  and  the  cacodaemonic — until  the  time  of 
Christ  constantly  diverging  lines — we  proceed,  in  the  first 
place,  to  the  nearer  examination  of  the  former. 


THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST. 


I. 

A.    AS    THE   SYMBOL    OF  BLESSING. 

AS  a  religious  positive  symbol,  one  indicative  of  salvation 
and  blessing,  the  cross  would  seem  to  exist  in  the  case 
of  a  great  number  of  heathen  nations  of  the  Old  World  and 
the  New.  Yet  the  more  special  significance  of  the  different 
cruciform  emblems  of  heathendom  remains  to  a  great  extent 
still  veiled  in  darkness,  and  gives  rise  to  various  questions 
and  doubts.  And  so  far  as  they  cannot,  as  here  and  there 
in  India,  in  the  South  Sea  Islands,  and  in  the  New  World, 
be  regarded  as  traceable  to  the  influence  of  Christian  ideas, 
they  at  all  events  appear  as  purely  cosniical  emblems,  serving 
for  the  representation  of  the  mere  powers  of  nature,  or  as 
symbols  of  idolatrous  worship,  and  bear  no  sort  of  mark  of 
revelation,  no  sign  of  having  their  home  in  the  suprasensuous 
world. 

As  belonging  to  the  class  of  the  inadequate  and  external 
rudimentary  ordinances  of  the  world  (Gal.  iv.  3,  9),  appears 
especially  the  cruciform  religious  emblem  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  the    so-called  Ansate  cross   icriix  ansata),  im- 

J 


2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

properly  called    also  the    "  Key  of  the  Nile,"  —  a  term  the 
signification  of  which  is  liable  to  be  misapprehended.     (Figs. 

Fig.  I.  Fig.  2.  Fig.  3. 

Those  Christian  Egyptians  living  towards  the  close  of  the 
fourth  century  who  were  versed  in  the  hieroglyphics,  when 
consulted  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  sign,  attached  to  it  the 
signification  of  "  the  life  to  come."  Such  was  their  judg- 
ment as  given  on  the  occasion  of  the  discovery  of  this  sign, 
together  with  other  sacred  hieroglyphs,  upon  the  stones 
of  the  temple  of  Serapis,  destroyed  in  the  time  of  Bishop 
Theophilus  {390  or  391) — a  discovery  which  had  excited  the 
astonishment  of  the  Christian  multitude  engaged  upon  the 
work  of  destruction.^  But  this  metaphysical  signification  of 
the  symbol  can  certainly  only  be  regarded  as  a  derived  one, 
belonging  to  a  later  more  spiritualised  phase  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  ancient  Egyptian  religion.  The  more  modern 
Egyptology,  from  the  time  of  Champollion,  has  asserted  for 
the  hieroglyph  of  the  Ansate  cross  simply  the  signification 
of  "  Life  "  (Earl.  Egypt,  and  Copt,  anch)? 

But  even  this  seems  to  have  sprung  from  a  still  more  con- 
crete and  sensuous  meaning  ;  perhaps  that  which  the  hiero- 
glyph in  question  had  as  a  symbol  of  Osiris  or  the  sun. 
According  to  Macrobius,  the  Egyptians,  when  they  would 
hieroglyphically  depict  Osiris,  were  "wont  to  draw  the 
picture  of  a  staff  with  an  eye  above  it ;  because  the  ancients 
called  the  sun  the  eye  of  God."  ^  And  for  the  fact  that  the 
so-depicted  sun-god  Osiris  was  not  essentially  different  from 

'  Socrates,  H.  E.,  v.  17.  Compare  the  shorter  account  of  Sozom.,  vii.  15  ; 
Theodoret,  v.  22 ;  Ruffinus,  ii.  26,  29. 

^  Uhlemann,  Handbuch  der  Ges.  dgypt.  Alterthinnskunde,  i.,  "Gesch.  der 
Aegyptologie,"  S.  108  f.  Cp.  Letronne,  La  Croix  Ansie,  in  the  Mem.  de  V Academie 
des  Inscriptions,  T.  xvi.  (1846),  pt.  ii.,  p.  236;  as  also  Raoul  Rochette,  ibid., 
p.  286  sqq. 

^  Macrob.,  Saturn.,  i.  20:  Osirim  ..^gyptii  ut  solem  esse  asserant,  quoties 
hieroglyphicis  Uteris  suis  exprimere  volunt,  insculpunt  sceptrum  inque  eo  speciem 
oculi  exprimunt,  etc. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  3 

Serapis — and  that,  accordingly,  the  frequent  occurrence  of 
the  sign  in  question  upon  the  walls  of  the  Serapeion  must 
have  referred  to  none  other  than  the  god  of  this  temple  — 
we  have  a  direct  testimony  in  Marcianus  Capella/  Of  the 
single  constituent  parts  of  the  mystic  symbol,  the  ring  or 
circle  may  in  itself  have  been  designed  to  indicate  the  sun — 
as  is  indeed  expressly  testified  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus.^ 
The  longer  perpendicular  lines  may  have  designated  the 
perpendicularly  descending  rays  of  the  noonday  sun  ;  the 
shorter  horizontal  line  beneath  the  circle,  the  horizontal  rays 
of  the  rising  sun  of  morning  and  the  setting  sun  of  evening/^ 
Placed  in  the  hand  of  a  human  figure,  the  sign  might  denote 
the  divine  dignity  of  the  person  ;  conferred  upon  a  king,  it 
might  imply  that  eternal  life,  or  exaltation  into  the  blissful 
communion  of  the  gods,  was  granted  to  him.  The  mere  sign 
,  moreover,  without  any  image  of  the  sun  resting  upon  it, 

occurs  upon  the  Egyptian  monuments,  e.g.,  on  the  breast  of  a 
mummy  in  the  British  Museum ;  sometimes  also  as  growing 
out  of  the  heart  of  a  man,  and  apparently  denoting  the 
hope  of  a  divine  reward  or  of  the  life  to  come.  It  must, 
however,  be  remembered  that  the  foregoing  attempt  at  inter- 
pretation is  only  one  among  many;  and  we  do  not  venture 
to  characterise  it  as  an  absolutely  certain  and  trustworthy 
one,  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  art  possesses  also  several 
other  cruciform  signs,  which — alike  because  no  deeper  mystic 
signification  attaches  to  them,  as  because  they  are  met 
with  much  less  frequently  in  the  hieroglyphic  texts  than  the 
almost  constantly  recurring  Ansate  cross — can  scarcely  be 
reckoned  as  among  those  crosses  of  the  ancient  world  which 
have  a  religious  significance,  although  some  of  them  express 

'  De  Nuftiis  Mercurii  et  PhilologicB,  ii.  191  : 

Te  Serapin  Nilus  Memphis  veneratur  Osirim, 

Dissona  sacra  Mithram  Ditemque  ferumque  Typhonem,  etc. 

*  Strom.,  V.  4,  p.  657,  Pott.  ij\iov  yovp  ypdipai  ^ovXd/nevoi  kvkKov  iroiovOL. 

*  So  at  least  Rapp,  Das  Labariim,  etc.,  S.  123  f.,  with  whom  Zestermann, 
i.,  S.  7,  agrees.  Others,  indeed,  explain  the  Ansate  cross  in  an  essentially  different 
manner;  cp.  Appendix  IL  :  Earlier  and  later  opinions  with  regard  to 

THE   symbolic  meaning  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  ANSATE  CROSS. 


4  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

in  a  very  distinct  manner  the  form  of  the  sacred  symbol  of 
Christianity.     Such  are  Figs.  4,  5,  6,  7,  8  ;  this  last  a  deter- 


^ 


H  -  am,  A         un,  H^  net, 


Fig.  4,  Fig.  5.  Fig.  6.  Fig.  7.  Fig.  8. 

minative,   signifying    "town,"  "inhabited  place."     Only  one 
of  these  figures,  the  symbol  of  the  Nilometer  {NeiXo/xeTpcou, 

^    NetXoaKOTTeiov)  (Fig.  9),  consisting  of  an  upright  bar  with 

Fig.  9. 

four  cross-bars,  appears  to  have  expressed  a  deeper  religious 
conception.  This  sign,  occurring  as  the  attribute  of  the  god 
Ptah,  appears  to  have  been  symbolic  of  the  fourfold  character 
of  the  world's  zones  and  of  the  elements,  but  at  the  same 
time  also  of  the  four  stages  of  the  spiritual  life  and  of  the 
soul's  migrations  (metempsychosis).^  Taken  in  itself,  indeed, 
it  was  certainly  only  a  simplifying  figurative  representation  of 
those  pillars  erected  in  the  Nile  at  different  places,  ^.^.,  at 
Syene,  Elephantine,  Koptos,  Memphis,  Mendes,  Chois,  etc., 
portioned  off  into  cubits,  feet,  and  inches,  by  means  of  which 
the  rising  or  falling  of  the  waters  of  the  sacred  stream  was 
observed.  It  is  indicative  of  the  peculiarly  Egyptian  cha- 
racter of  this  symbol  that  it  does  not  recur  with  other  nations 
of  antiquity ;  while  the  Ansate  cross,  though  ordinarily  in  a 
form  differing  in  one  respect  or  other  from  the  Egyptian 
type,  appears  as  pretty  generally  diffused  throughout  the  art 
symbolics  of  the  nations  of  Citerior  Asia  as  well.  For  the  oppo- 
site opinion  of  Letronne,  who  sought  to  show  that  the  crux 
ansata  was  an  exclusively  Egyptian  symbol,  was  presently 
refuted  by  Rochette  with  superior  archcieological  learning.'^ 
As  concerns  the  cruciform  emblems  of  the  ancient  religions 

'  Compare  as  regards  these  hieroglyphic  signs,  H.  Brugsch,  Hiei-oglyphiiche 
Orammatik,  Leipzig,  1872.  On  the  signification  of  the  Nilometer  according  to 
Passalaqua,  cp.  Carriere,  Die  Kunst  im  Ztcsa/nmenhang  der  Culturentwicklung, 
etc.,  i.  199. 

2  De  la  Croix  Ansee,  etc.,  as  before,  pp.  28S  sqq. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  5 

of   CiTERIOR  Asia,    among  these    predominates   the   figure 
(Fig.  lo),  with  the  subordinate  forms  (Figs,   ii,  I2,   13),  etc. 


? 


? 


Fig.  10.     Fig.  II.     Fig.  12.     Fig.  13. 

This  appears,  notwithstanding  the  circular  form  of  its  ring, 
and  the  httle  distance  between  the  under  edge  thereof  and 
the  horizontal  line  of  the  cross,  pretty  similar  to  the  Egyptian 
Ansate  cross.  Egyptian  monuments,  too,  on  some  occasions 
represent  entirely  the  figure  of  Citerior  Asia,  as  conversely  in 
single  rare  cases  there  is  found  upon  monuments  of  Citerior 

Asia  the  Egyptian  form  (Fig.  14).      Moreover,  the  sign   'T* 

Fig,  14. 

presents  itself  amidst  entirely  similar  circumstances  and 
surroundings  as  in  the  figurative  representations  of  the 
Egyptians.  Gods  carry  it  in  their  hands  ;  especially  does 
the  Assyrian  Venus,  or  Istar,  standing  upon  a  lion,  bear  the 
emblem  (in  the  third  and  most  complicated  of  the  above 
secondary  forms)  in  her  left  hand,  while  with  her  right  she 
supports  herself  upon  a  staff  with  crescent-shaped  handle.^ 
Upon  a  Babylonian  cylinder  it  is  held  forth  or  presented  to 
the  figure  of  a  king  or  god,  by  a  man  in  the  posture  of 
adoration.  Here  and  there  the  separation  of  the  upper  and 
lower  elements  of  the  figure  recur :  thus  upon  a  stele  from 
Khorsabad,  where  an  eagle-headed  man  holds  in  his  right 
hand  the  ring,  in  his  left  the  cross  or  Tau.^  From  this  the 
essential  identity  of  the  sign  with  the  Egyptian  one  becomes 
evident,  even  as  to  its  mystic  signification,  which  assuredly, 
even  with  the  people  of  the  Euphrates,  the  Phoenicians,  etc., 

'  Compare  the  well-known  representation  of  the  Assyrian  Venus  (of  Pterium) 
in  Layard's  Nineveh  and  its  Remai>is,  Fig.  82  ;  also,  e.g.,  in  Riehm's  Haiidivbrter- 
biuh  des  bibl.  Alterthums,  Art.  "  Astarte  "  (S.  1 13). 

^  Botta,  Momimens  de  Nineve,  vol.  ii.,  p.  158;  cp.  Layard,  Fig.  23  (Riehm, 
Fig.  B,  S.  114). 


6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

was  no  other  than  that  of  "  Life."  Specially,  and  for  the  most 
part  indeed,  does  this  sign  seem  to  have  been  consecrated 
in  the  religions  of  Citerior  Asia  to  the  goddess  of  love  and 
fruitfulness,  that  Babylonian-Assyrian  Istar,  the  Phoenician 
Astarte,  the  mother  of  the  gods  in  the  worship  of  Asia  Minor 
— the  Artemis  too  of  Ephesus,  for  example.     The  well-known 

Hp-    use  of  the  form  (Fig.  15)  as  a  sign  of  the  planet  Venus 

Fig.  IS. 

has  also  in  any  case  arisen  from  this  primitive  religious  sym- 
bolisation,  on  the  part  of  the  eastern  nations,  with  regard  to 
the  goddess  of  love  ;  whether  the  origin  of  this  astronomical 
semiology  is  to  be  sought  in  Egypt  or  on  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates.-^ 

Besides  this  ansate  cruciform  figure,  which — in  distinction 
from  the  Egyptian  Ansate  cross,  and  with  reference  to  its 
ordinary  use  among  astronomers  and  almanac  makers,  even 
in  the  present  day,  as  a  symbol  of  Venus — we  may  speak  of 
as  Venus'  looking-glass,  the  monuments  of  the  Assyrians, 
Persians,  Phoenicians,  and  peoples  of  Asia  Minor,  display  a 
yet  simpler  cruciform  figure  (Figs.  16,  17,  18,  19)  as  a  religious 


e      ^ 

Fig.  16.  Fig.  17.  Fig.  18.  Fig.  ig. 

emblem,  occurring  partly  alone,  partly  in  combination  with 
the  other.  It  is  the  sacred  sun-wheel  with  the  four  radii, 
which  are  depicted  either  with  their  circumference,  or  sepa- 
rate from  it  in  the  figure  of  an  equal-armed  cross — similar 
to  the  Maltese  cross — the  emblem  of  the  all-pervading  and 
all-quickening  power  of  the  sun,  glittering  upon  the  breasts 
of  images  representing  Assyrian  kings,  sometimes  borne 
as    an    ear-ornament    by   persons  of   royal   rank,  frequently 

'  Compare  in  general  Raoul  Rochette,  in  the  dissertation  against  Letronne,  as 
before  referred  to,  Mem.  de  I' Acad,  des  Inscriptions,  etc.  On  the  work  of  Fel. 
Lajard,  Observations sur P Origineeila  Signification duSymboleappele la  Croix  Ansee, 
Par.  1847,  which  belongs  to  this  part  of  our  subject,  but  is  to  be  received  with 
caution,  cp.  Appendix  II.,  No.  6. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  7 

also  (on  monuments  of  Nineveh  and  Persepolis)  placed  in 
connection  with  the  winged  figure  of  a  ferver,  which  then 
appears  depicted  within  the  four-spoked  sun-wheel.^  From 
the  Babylonian-Assyrian  cultus-tradition  and  art,  this  symbol 
proceeded  eastward  to  the  Persians,  westward  to  the  Phoeni- 
cians, by  which  latter  it  was  transplanted  partly  to  Asia 
Minor,  partly  to  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean,  Thus  a 
gigantic  cross  of  this  kind,  hewn  in  the  solid  rock  on  the 
island  of  Malta,  as  likewise  some  similar  ones  on  Gozzo,  is 
said  not  to  date  from  the  time  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John, 
but  to  have  a  Phoenician  (!)  origin.^  Coins  from  Marathus 
in  Phoenicia,  from  Cyprus,  Cilicia,  Lycia,  etc.,  present,  in 
addition  to  the  Asiatic  Ansate  cross,  though  more  rarely 
than  this  last-mentioned  one,  the  equal-armed  cross.^  Upon 
coins  of  the  Philistine  Gaza,  upon  Phoenician  vases  and 
stone  monuments,  frequently  in  Asia  Minor, ^^yea,  accord- 
ing to  Schliemann,  upon  several  of  the  vases  of  Hissarlik, 
belonging  to  the  supposed  "  Trojan  antiquities,"  there  oc- 
curs (in  addition  to  these)  that  cruciform  emblem  which 
we  shall  farther  on  learn  to  know  as  the  sacred  Swastika 
(S9avistica)  sign  among  the  nations  of  Farther  Asia  on  the 
one  hand,  and    the  Etruscans  and   Celts  on   the  other,  and 


which,  like  the  sign  (Fig.  20),       [      is  perhaps  to  be  regarded 

Fig.  20. 

as  a  simplification  or  abbreviating  variation  of  the  sun-wheel 
(Fig.  21).  © 

Fig.  21. 

As  a  third  cross-shaped  symbol  of  Assyrian  or  Babylonian 
origin  may  the  strange  mystic  miraculous-tree  be  regarded, 
which  is  to  be  found  engraven  upon  numerous  monuments  of 

'  Layard,  Nineveh,  Fig.  79  a,  b,  cp.  Figs.  11,  59. 

^  So  also  [Walter  Wilkins]  the  learned  writer  of  the  article  on  "the  pre- 
Christian  Cross"  in  the  Edinbin-gh  Revie^v,  Jan.  1870  (p.  234),  who,  however,  is 
often  uncritical,  and  given  to  over-statement. 

*  See  the  representatives  in  Rochette,  /.  c.  PI.  ii.,  No.  I  — 19,  and  in  Rapp,  Das 
Labarum,  etc.     Taf.  ii.     Cp.  also  Perrot,  Voyage  en  Bithynie,  etc.,  PI.  ix. 


8 


THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 


ancient  Nineveh,  alike  in  the  cyhnder,  as  in  the  embroidery 
of  the  garments  of  human  figures.^ 

Inasmuch  as  there  is  characteristically 
apparent,  amidst  the  manifold  tastefully 
and  laboriously  wrought  ornamentations 
of  this  peculiar  figure  (Fig.  22),  a  threefold 
crossing  of  the  perpendicularly  rising  stem 
by  horizontal  branches  extending  to  the 
right  and  to  the  left,  it  displays  a  certain 
distant  resemblance  to  the  Nilometer, 
which  presents  an  upright  rod  crossed  by 
four  bars.  Yet  that  the  tree-like  cha- 
racter of  the  figure  preponderates  is  evident 
Fig.  22.  from  the  further    mutual  intersection  and 

intertwining  of  the  net-shaped  boughs,  and  the  termination 
of  the  same 'in  flower-like  ornaments,  encircling  the  whole 
figure  as  a  fringe,  and  regularly  fifteen  in  number.  Though, 
it  is  true,  no  definite  tree  or  plant  in  nature,  neither  the 
cypress,  nor  the  tamarisk,  nor  the  palm,  etc.,  can  be  as- 
signed as  the  type  of  this  the  conventional  product  of  the 
imagination.  As  regards  its  religious  significance,  its  refer- 
ence to  the  tradition  of  Paradise,  and  its  connection — yea, 
its  original  identity — with  the  Old  Testament  Tree  of  Life, 
appears  to  be  indisputable.  This  is  especially  evident  from 
the  occurrence  of  the  figure  upon  the  clay  coffins  excavated 
in  Warka,  the  ancient  ErecJi  (Gen.  x.  10),  and  now  preserved 
in  the  British  Museum.  On  these  the  figure  appears  to  have 
been  imitated  from  models  belonging  at  any  rate  to  a  very 
early  antiquity,  and  must  necessarily  express  a  reference  to 
eternal  life,  and  the  blissful  communion  with  the  gods  in 
the  other  world.^  The  mythological  tradition  and  religious 
art  of  the  ancient  Persians  knows  the  same  symbol  as  the  tree 
of  Horn  (Homa),  and  depicts  it  in  like  manner  as  the  Baby- 

*  Depicted  in  Layard's  A^/«^'^//,  Fig.  33  ;  as  in  Piper's  dissertation,  "DerBaum 
des  Lebens,"  Evangel.  Kalender,  1863,  S.  23. 

^  Compare  Schrader,  "  Semitismus  und  Babylonismus,"  in  Heft  i.  of  the  Jen. 
Jahrbb.fiir  protestant.  Theol.,  1875,  S.  124  f.  — Cp.  also  what  is  said  below,  at -the 
close  of  this  chapter. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  9 

Ionian-Assyrian  monuments,  though  not  without  considerable 
deviation  on  particular  points.  Thus  there  do  not  appear 
with  them  worshipping  priests  standing  at  the  two  sides  of 
the  tree,  but  ordinarily — as  on  that  beautiful  Sassanidic  vase 
of  silver  in  the  Paris  Museum — two  erect  lions  arranged 
crosswise.^  More  important  deviations  from  the  typical 
scheme  of  a  triple  cross,  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the 
Babylonian-Persian  form  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  are  presented 
in  the  sacred  tree  of  the  Indian  monuments  ;  especially  in 
the  traditional  representation  as  Bodhi-tree  (Tree  of  Know- 
ledge or  Wisdom),  i.e.,  as  that  Fiats  religiosa,  under  which 
SakyA  Mouni,  absorbed  in  devout  meditations,  is  said  to  have 
raised  himself  to  the  dignity  of  a  Buddha.^  An  analogy  with 
that  associating  of  the  Tree  of  Life  with  the  idea  of  wisdom, 
which  obtains,  too,  in  the  Old  Testament  (Prov.  iii.  i8,  and 
often),  as  well  as  in  other  religious  traditions  of  antiquity,  is 
certainly  to  be  traced  here.  But  no  relation  to  the  religious- 
symbolical  representation  of  the  cross  is  to  be  sought  in  con- 
nection with  this  sacred  tree  of  the  Buddhist  monuments. 

India,  however,  and  especially  Buddhistic  India,  other- 
wise abounds  in  primitive  symbols  of  the  cross,  of  different 
form  and  significance.  The  Ansate  cross  or  Nile-key,  espe- 
cially, is,  according  to  the  statements  of  English  investigators, 
to  be  seen,  with  peculiar  modification,  upon  certain  ancient 
representations  of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva  ;  the  Nile-key- 
Hke  symbol  Tshaki-a,  held  in  the  hands  of  these  divinities,  is 
said  to  imply  "dominion,"  "majesty,"  and,  especially  where 
it  occurs  as  an  attribute  of  Vishnu,  to  symbolise  the  eternal, 
ever-increasing  dominion  of  this  god  over  the  lower  world  of 
earth.^     Huge  rude  stone  crosses,  supposed  to  have  been  of 

'  Compare  Lenormant,  in  the  Melanges  d' Arckeologie,  T.  iii.,  p.  124.     Piper, 
a.  a.  0.,  S.  79. 

-  Lassen,  Indische  Alterthiimshinde,  2  Aufl.,  Bd.  ii.,  S.  75.^ 
*  Comp.  Edinb.  Reviezu,  Jan.  1870,  p.  232.  On  the  magical  operations  ascribed 
by  the  worshippers  of  Vishnu  to  this  Tshakra  cross,  frequently  employed  as  an 
amulet,  or  put  to  similar  uses,  the  reviewer  observes  :  "  It  is  a  curious  fact,  that 
his  obsequious  follower  attaches  as  many  virtues  to  it,  as  does  the  devout  Romanist 
to  the  Christian  Cross." 


10  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

pre-Christian  origin,  are  said  to  have  been  discovered  in 
various  places  of  Citerior  India.  So  on  the  banks  of  the 
Godavery,  not  far  from  Nirmul,  and  here  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  certain  cromlechs,  the  well-ascertained  pre- 
Christian  antiquity  of  which  must,  it  is  said,  force  us  to  a 
corresponding  conclusion  with  regard  to  the  period  to  which 
the  crosses  belong.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  no  less 
an  authority  than  Fergusson,  the  best-qualified  judge  on  the 
question  of  ancient  Indian  culture  and  art  history,  has  ex- 
pressed himself  in  favour  of  the  view  that  both  kinds  of 
monuments,  the  cromlechs  as  well  as  the  crosses,  were  alike 
raised  during  the  Middle  Ages,  by  a  dolmen-forming  tribe 
under  Christian  influence.^  With  greater  certainty  may  we 
regard  the  gigantic  granite  monoliths  in  the  form  of  a  cross, 
discovered  by  Mulheran  in  the  Vindhya  district  of  Central 
India,  in  the  year  1869,  as  dating  from  a  pre-Christian  period."^ 
A  particularly  prominent  part  is  played  by  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  mostly  indeed  in  a  somewhat  curved  type,  as  Swastika 
cross  {croix  pattce,  footed  cross  of  the  French  archaeologists, 
-j  Fig.  23),  among  the  BUDDHISTS  of  Hither  and  Farther 
'  \~  India.  It  is  not  indeed  an  object  of  adoration,  but  yet  a 
Fig- 23-  specially  favourite  religious  symbol  of  this  sect.  Origi- 
nally it  seems  to  have  denoted  for  them  the  four  corners  or 
quarters  of  the  world  ;  and  this  indeed,  in  the  first  place,  in  the 
/T\  more  complete  form  of  the  sun-wheel  (Fig.  24),  which 
Fi^24.  seems  to  indicate  the  four  heavenly  regions  traversed  by 
the  sun's  course — i.e.,  the  four  points  of  the  compass — of  which 
the  Swastika  appears  to  be  a  later  abbreviating  transformation, 
effected  by  the  omission  of  the  greater  part  of  the  four  arcs.^ 
Much  less  easily  defended  does  the  other  explanation  of  the 

'  J.  Fergusson,  Rude  Stone  Monuments  in  all  Coimtries.     London,  1872. 

^  Comp.  Edinb.  Rev.,  1.  c,  p.  253  sqq.,  where  a  more  complete  description  is 
given  of  this  cruciform  monolith,  on  the  authority  of  the  photographic  views  of 
Colonel  Meadowes  Taylor. 

^  So  rightly  the  English  Chinese  scholar  Beal,  (in  a  lecture  delivered  by  him  at 
Plymouth  in  the  winter  of  1874,)  resting  upon  the  support  of  his  translation  of  the 
Abhinishkramana-Sutra,  one  of  the  earliest  sources  for  the  life  of  Buddha,  from 
the  Qiinese. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  I  I 

Swastika  cross  appear — an  explanation  which  can  be  true 
only  with  regard  to  a  part  of  the  Buddhists,  and  that  of  com- 
paratively late  formation — which  represents  it  as  the  mystic 
shibboleth  of  the  "  western  Paradise."  This  land  of  bliss 
(Sukhavati),  said  to  have  been  designated  by  Buddha  himself 
as  lying  in  the  far  west,  forms  a  main  feature  in  the  belief  of 
the  more  northerly  Buddhists,  in  Northern  India,  Cashmere, 
Tibet,  etc.,  who  relate  wonderful  things  about  this  land,  sup- 
posed to  extend  beyond  the  limits  of  the  visible  world,  as 
the  dwelling-place  of  the  immortal  sage  Amitabha,  and  the 
blissful  companions  of  his  immortality.  Especially  does  the 
dogmatic  tradition  of  the  northern  Buddhists,  attached  to  this 
worship  of  Amitabha,  delight  to  paint  with  the  highest  colour- 
ing of  the  eastern  imagination  the  seven  pools  situated  in  the 
centre  of  this  wonderland,  the  precious  properties  of  their 
waters,  the  glory  of  their  bottom  sparkling  with  sand  of  gold 
and  with  gems,  the  fragrant  perfume  of  the  lotos  flowers 
cradling  on  their  surface,  the  bewitchingly  sweet  notes  of  the 
beauteous  birds  hovering  over  them.  All  this  it  does,  cer- 
tainly not  without  the  design  of  presenting  an  alternative  to 
the  popular  conception  of  the  Nirvdna-heUef  on  the  part  of 
the  other  Buddhists ;  but  precisely  therein  it  betrays  its  later 
origin,  which  does  not  indeed  extend  back  beyond  the  fifth 
Christian  century,  and  consequently  by  no  means  excludes 
the  possibility  of  a  co-operation  of  Christian  influences  in  its 
formation.^  Older  than  this  northern  Buddhism,  yea  accord- 
ing to  some  as  old  as  the  Buddhistic  belief  itself,  and  at  any 
rate  dating  back  by  some  centuries  before  the  first  days  of 
the  Christian  history,  is  the  sect  of  the  Jainas  in  northern 
Central  India,  especially  south  of  the  Jumna,  in  Rajpootana, 
Scindia,  etc.  In  the  bosom  of  this  sect  there  seems  to  have 
especially  flourished  a  mystic-philosophic  worship  of  the 
cross,  the  professors  of  which — the  so-called  Tirthankars,  or 
"  purified  ones  " — are  said,  on  account  of  the  high  degree  of 
importance  they  attached  to  the  Swastika  cross  as  a  symbo- 

•  Comp.    Ernst  J.   Eitel,  Buddhism:   its  Historical,    Theoretical,   and  Popular 
Aspects.     London,  1873. 


12  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

lisation  of  their  atheistic  and,   as  is   alleged,   also   immoral, 
libertine  principles,  leading  to  the  indulgence  of  every  sen- 
suous excess,  to  have  been  known  also  as  simply  Swastikas. 
The  sign  of  the  cross  appears  consequently  in  their  case  to 
have  been  the  symbol  of  a  cosmical  or  worldly  bias  in  the 
worst  sense  of  the  word — of  a  radical  secularism.     Then  they 
fell  again  into  three  separate  sects,  supposed  to  have  been 
founded  by  the  three  deified  sages,  Suparusnath,  Sitalanath, 
and  Arnath,  and  distinguished   by  the  special  modifications 
of  the  Swastika  cross,  of  which  they   availed   themselves  as 
emblems.     For  while  the  followers  of  Suparusnath,  the  Swas- 
tikas properly  so  called,  who  form  the  oldest  and  strongest 
body  of  the  "  purified  ones,"  designated  themselves  by  the 
A      simplest   and    most  generally  diffused    type  of  this 
<^=:^^o  cross  (that  above  depicted),  the  sect  of  the   Srivatsa, 
V       founded   by    the    second    of   these   sages,    bore   the 
Fig-  25-     emblem  (Fig.  25),  and  the  party  founded  by  Arnath 
the  yet  more  artificial  and  complicated  sign  (Fig.  26).     Yet 
another  emblem,  to  be  found  on  the  monuments  of 
the   Jaina  sect,  which    displays  at    least  a  certain 
distant    resemblance    to  a   cross,    is    the   so-called 
"  Tree   of   Knowledge,"  Kalpa    VritsJi,  represented 
tig.  26.      ^g  ^j^  immense  thick  stem,  in  the  form  of  a  human 
head,  with  not  altogether  disagreeable  features.     From  the 
top  of  the  skull   grow    two   longer  branches  drooping    over 
the  two   sides,  while   a  third  and   smaller  branch,  crowned 
with  a  blossom-like  head,  rises  erect.     This  strange   figure 
bears  no  distinct  form  of  the  cross,   any  more  than    it  dis- 
plays— as  has  been  assumed — a    very   definite  resemblance 
to  the    sacred  Bodhi-tree  of  the  Buddhists.      On  the  other 
hand,  the  fact  may  be  regarded  as  solidly  established  that 
Buddhism  has  employed  the    cross,  and  indeed  the  above- 
mentioned  simplest  and  most  original  Swastika  cross,  with  the 
cosmical  significance  above  attached  to  it  (as  an  image  of 
the  world  or  earth),  as  an  ideal  architectural  element  in  its 
imposing  temple-structures  of  Hither  and  Farther  India.    For, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  great  Pagoda  Bindh  Madhu,  at  Benares, 


F  [ 

iizJ 

A 

AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  I3 

destroyed  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  Great  Mogul 
Aurungzebe,  was,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  French 
traveller  Tavernier  (1675),  constructed  on  the  plan  of  a  colossal 
cross,  and  as  it  is  said  a  diagonal,  or  St.  Andrew's  cross 
(Fig.  2j)}  On  the  other  hand,  first  Mouhot  and  then  Ad. 
Bastian,  about  the  middle  of  the  present  century,  found,  /> 
in  the  course  of  their  travels  in  Farther  India,  the  great  ^'s-^?- 
Buddhist  temples  of  Cambodia — and  especially  the  mighty 
pagoda  of  Nakhon  Vat  or  Ongkor  Vat — not  merely  variously 
adorned  upon  its  gates  and  walls  with  cruciform  figures,  but 
also  expressing  in  its  general  outlines,  as  well  as  in  matters 
of  detail,  the  "  Prasat,"  or  form  of  the  cross  ;  in  such  wise  that 
its  corridors  always  intersect  each  other  at  right  angles.^ 

Outside  of  India  too,  so  far  as  Buddhist  influences  extend, 
the  presence  of  the  crosses  characteristic  of  Buddhism, 
specially  of  the  Swastika  cross,  was  to  be  looked  for.  And 
it  is  said,  in  fact,  that  these  have  been  discovered  in  certain 
parts  of  Tibet  and  China,  yea  even  in  Japan — in  the  latter 
country  appearing,  e.g.,  upon  the  breast  of  the  idol  Xaka,  the 
Buddha  reformer  of  Japan — and  still  farther  to  the  north.^ 
Yet  with  regard  to  several  of  the  instances  in  point,  the  sus- 
picion of  Christian  influence  is  not  excluded,  especially  where 
the  sign  bears  less  resemblance  to  the  Swastika  than  to  the 
ordinary  Christian  type  of  the  cross,  and  where  moreover 
the  proof  is  wanting  for  the  pre-Christian  antiquity  of  the 
monuments  in  question.  The  Catholic  Missionary-Bishop 
Faurie,  who  testifies  to  the  religious  use  of  the  sign  of  the 
cross  among  certain  tribes  of  the  province  of  Kui-tsheu  in 
Southern  China,  and  gives  an  account  of  sacrifices  presented 
before  great  crosses  erected  at  the  entrances  of  villages,  and 

'   Voyages  de  Tavei'nier,  t.  iv.,  p.  149.     Comp.  Edinb.  Rev.,  as  before,  jo.  249. 

^  Ad.  Bastian,  A  Visit  to  the  Ruined  Cities  and  Buildings  of  Cajubodia  (London, 
1866),  p.  7.  "  The  Prasat,  the  distinguishing  feature  of  these  exotic  stone  monu- 
ments of  Cambodia,  forms  always  a  cross,  with  the  corridors  dissecting  each  other 
at  right  angles." 

'  Stockbauer,  Kunstgcschichte  des  Kreuzes,  S.  91.  Edinb. Rev.,  p.  238  ff.,  Rapp, 
das  Labaium,  etc.,  S.  126.  The  latter  will  see  in  the  Chinese  sign  for  five  '^7' 
a  religious  significance.     Hardly  with  sufficient  reason.  .^. 


14  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  coloured  crosses  wrought  into  the  garments,  of  marking 
the  foreheads  of  the  dead  with  a  cross  in  ashes,  etc.,  may 
certainly  be  right  in  explaining  these  customs  as  of  Christian 
origin.  At  any  rate  the  fact  that  the  said  tribes,  according  to 
his  account,  attach  to  the  cross  the  name  of  a  "  great  patri- 
archal ancestor,  Saviour,  and  protector,"  by  no  means  suffices 
to  prove  a  heathen  origin  to  this  superstitious  reverence  of 
the  cross,  and  a  Buddhistic  one  in  particular.  For  of  such 
idolatrous  worship  of  the  cross  neither  in  Buddhistic  tradition 
in  general,  nor  specially  that  among  the  Siamese  or  other 
races  of  Farther  Asia  akin  to  these  races  of  Southern  China, 
do  any  evidences  exist.  Whether  the  symbol  of  the  cross 
in  use  among  the  Kamschatdales,  of  which  Humboldt  on  one 
occasion  makes  mention,^  and  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  the 
magic  drums  of  Samoiedan  and  Lappian  priests,"  and  other 
matters  of  a  like  nature  in  Northern  Asia  and  Europe,  are  to 
be  traced  to  Buddhistic  or  to  Christian  influences,  or — like 
those  supposed  Swastika  signs  which  Schliemann  reports 
having  discovered  on  the  vases  excavated  by  him  in  Hissarlik, 
and  other  things  similar — are  to  be  reckoned  as  belonging  to 
the  class  of  independent  inventions  of  heathendom  in  the 
course  of  its  natural  growth,  must  remain  undecided,  owing 
to  the  insufficiency  of  the  information  we  possess  with  regard 
to  the  phenomena  in  question.  To  some  of  the  forms  belong- 
ing to  this  category  we  shall  have  occasion  to  return  at  a  later 
stage. 

Involved  in  great  obscurity  is  the  origin  and  significance  of 
that  Labarum  cross  of  Ancient  Bactria,  which,  though  un- 
questionably of  pre-Christian  origin,  yet  displays  a  surprising 
resemblance  to  the  Labarum  of  Constantine,  and  possibly 
may  have  served  as  a  model  for  the  cross-adorned  standard  of 
the  first  Christian  emperor.  The  form  in  which  this  symbol 
appears  on  coins  of  the  Bactrian  king  Hippostratus  (circ.  A.C. 
130),  (Figs.  28,  29,)  is  distinguished  from  that  ordinarily  found 

*  Comp.  A.  V.  Humboldt,  in  the  Exanien  crit.  de  rHistoire  de  la  Gcographie  du 
Nouveau  Continent,  ii.,  354.     Rochholz,  Altdeutsches  Biirgei'leben,  S.  184. 

*  Cp.  Magazin  f.  d.  Literat.  des  Auslands,  1873,  No.  13. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING. 


15 


upon  the  coins  of  Constantine  the  Great  by  the  fact  that  the 

Fig.  29. 

upright  staff  (furnished  with  the  ear,  or  handle)  (Fig.  30)  does 
not  in  the  latter  rise  above  the  sides  of  the  square  figure,  but 
within  the  same  passes  through  the  diagonal  cross  (Figs.  31, 


Fig.  30. 


X 

Fig.  31- 


:* 


Fig.  33- 


32,  33).  A  similar  figure  to  that  of  these  Bactrian  coins  is 
borne  also  on  the  coins  of  the  Egyptian  Ptolemies,  as  also 
on   some  Attic  tetradrachms  of  a  later  period  (Figs.  34,  35). 


* 


Fig.  34- 


\ 


< 


Fig.  35- 


H 


Fig.  36. 


P 


y 


\ 


In  like  manner  does  the  sign  (Fig.  36)  found  upon  silver 
coins  of  Mithridates  of  Pontus,  bear  some  approach  to  this 
form.^  Now  since  this  variously  modified  pre-Christian 
figure  (Fig.  2)7)  occurs  in  essentially  the  same  form,  with  the 
ear  or  handle  rising  above  the  square,  upon  Roman  coins 
too  of  Constantine,  and  the  succeeding  emperors  until  the 
time  of  Arcadius,  we  are  warranted  in  maintaining  in  reality 
the  perfect  identity  of  the  Labarum  of  that  kingdom  of  the 
Hellenic  diadochoi  (successors  of  Alexander)  with  that  of  the 
Christianised  Roman  Empire.  The  direct  imitation  of  the 
former  by  the  latter,  or  at  any  rate  the  falling  back  of  Con- 
stantine in  some  way  upon  that  former  sign  as  a  precedent, 
thus  becomes  probable.  (Compare  below.  Chapters  III.  and 
IV.)  Is  perhaps  the  Egyptian  Ansate  cross,  as  a  symbol  of  the 
sun  shedding  its  life-giving  beams  upon  the  earth,  or  as  also  the 
hieroglyph  of  everlasting  life,  to  be  regarded  as  the  common 
archetype  of  both  }     An  extending  of  the  symbol  of  such  ex- 


'  Stockbauer,  S.  87,  and  the  authorities  there  cited. 


1 6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

ceedingly  frequent  occurrence  upon  the  Egyptian  monuments 
to  that  kingdom  on  the  Upper  Oxus — distant  indeed  from 
Egypt,  but  from  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great  and  Seleucus 
remaining  for  a  considerable  time  in  a  constant  relation  of 
culture  with  the  world  of  Citerior  Asia,  and  even  with  :he 
land  of  the  Nile — is  not  in  itself  at  all  inconceivable,  any 
more  than  emblems  and  customs  derived  from  Egyptian 
forms  of  worship  need  surprise  us  in  imperial  Rome,  the 
meeting-place  of  all  the  possible  superstitions  of  the  East.^ 
But  the  form  of  the  Egyptian  Ansate  cross  is  essentially 
different  from  that  of  the  Labarum  cross,  whether  the  pre- 
Christian  one  of  the  East,  or  the  Christian-Roman  cross  of 
_^  Constantine,  in  that  the  Tau  form  (Fig.  38)  of  the  staff 
I  supporting  the  ring  or  handle  remains  unalterably  fixed, 
Fig.  38-  whilst  the  Labarurn — in  all  its  modifications,  at  any 
rate  of  the  earlier  pre-Constantine  period^ — ever  displays  a 
diagonal  cross,  the  so-called  St.  Andrew's  Cross  (cr?w  dcaissata, 

or  dccHssis),  /\    bisected  by  a  perpendicular  line,  ansate  {i.e., 

Fig.  39- 

furnished  with  a  handle)  at  the  top.  This  diagonal  cross,  in 
which  the  Greek  must  recognise  the  lines  of  his  letter  ')(^,  the 
Roman  those  of  his  numeral  X,  forms  the  true  characteristic 
of  the  Labarum  ;  whilst  for  the  various  modifications  of  the 
ansate  cross,  or  Nile-key,  the  characteristic  is  the  intersection 
of  a  perpendicular  line  by  a  horizontal  one,  thus  an  upright 
cross.     The  view  of  Rapp,  with  whom  Zestermann  agrees,^ 

'  Comp.  Raoul  Rochette  in  his  argument  before  referred  to  {Mem.,  Tom.  xvi.,  2, 
pp.  360  sqq.) 

2  On  the  form  (Fig.  40)  which  occm-s  as  a  merely  graphic  monetary  sign  upon 

some  coins  of  Herod  the  Great  (Madden,  Hist,  of  Jeivish  Coinage,  pp.  83, 

P      85,  87),  and,  later,  frequently  as  a  Christian  monogram  upon  inscriptions 

T  and  coins  under  the  successors  of  Constantine  the  Great — for  the  first 
Fig.  40.  time  upon  an  inscription  of  the  year  355,  then  pretty  frequently  upon 
coins  of  Valentinian  I.,  see  below,  Chapter  III. 

^  Zestermann,  i.,  7  f.  "  In  the  lands  more  northerly  situated,  as  Bactria  in  Asia, 
Gaul  and  Britain  in  Europe,  the  sun  never  stands  at  the  zenith.  It  sends  forth  at 
every  season  of  the  year,  only  slanting,  diagonal  rays,  which  fall  from  S.E.  to 
N.W.,  or  from  S.W.  to  N.E.,  according  to  the  position  of  the  sun.  These  rays, 
placed  in  a  quadrangle,  the  earliest  image  of  the  world,  form,  with  the  image  of 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  1 7 

that  the  combination  of  the  diagonal  cross  with  the  above- 
mentioned  ansate  perpendicular  line  in  the  Bactrian  Labarum 
is  to  be  regarded  as  emblematical  of  the  northern  zone  of  the 
earth,  enlightened  by  the  obliquely  falling  rays  of  the  sun — 
so  that  the  handle  or  half-circle  denotes  the  sun,  and  the 
square  crossed  by  the  two  diagonals  the  world  (the  orhis 
quadratus) — appears  to  us  to  have  something  forced  about  it, 
and  to  be  wanting  in  sufficient  positive  support.  In  connec- 
tion with  this  hypothesis,  the  difficulty  remains  unexplained, 
why  the  sun  is  not  represented  as  the  centre  or  starting-point 
of  the  so-called  rays,  which  cross  each  other,  but  appears 
raised  above  their  point  of  intersection.  It  is  moreover  a 
question  whether  the  representation  of  the  world  under  the 
form  of  a  square  was  specially  practised  among  the  ancient 
heathen  nations  of  Central  Asia,  as  the  Bactrians,  Northern 
Indians,  etc.  A  development  of  the  figure  (Fig.  41)  from  that 
other  figure  (Fig.  42),  of  which  the  very  early  use  among  the 


Fig.  41.  Fig.  42. 

nations  of  the  region  in  question  is  so  much  better  attested — 
see  above,  p.  10 — can  scarcely  be  supposed.  The  simplest 
explanation  of  the  Bactrian  and  Ptolemaic  Labarum  cross,  as 
of  the  various  secondary  forms  thereof,  is  that  which  sees  in 
them  only  graphic  signs  or  abbreviations,  having  reference  to 
words  such  as  ^pi/cro?,  or  apycov,  etc.  See  the  examples  given 
in  Chapter  III. 

We  come   to   the   pre-Christian  symbols  of  the  cross  in 
Europe.     Upon    urns   and    vases  of  ancient   Etruria,   as 

the  sun,  which,  sometimes  half  (Fig.  43),  sometimes  whole  (Fig.  44),  stands  at  the 
top  of  the  perpendicular  ray  above  the  world,  the  figure  (Figs.  45,  46),  which  in 


\      I 


Fig.  43.  Fig.  44.  Fig.  45.  Fig.  46. 

Asia  and  Europe — so  far  as  the  Egyptian  form  of  worship  had  not,  as  on  the 
coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  introduced  the  Egyptian  symbol  of  the  sun — was  the 
emblem  of  the  sun-worship,"  etc.     Cp.  Rapp,  S.  123  f. 

2 


lo  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

well  as  in  the  neighbouring  districts  of  Upper  Italy,  it  is 
well  known  that  cruciform  characters  have  been  observed,  as 
indeed  those  in  the  form  of  the  Swastika  cross — such  as  very 
manifestly  appear,  e.g.,  upon  a  mortuary  urn  of  Etruscan  work, 
discovered  remarkably  enough  at  Shropham  (Norfolk),  Eng- 
land, where  they  occur  as  an  ornament  in  about  twenty-four- 
fold repetition  ;  as  hkewise  upon  a  beautiful  golden  fibula 
of  the  Vatican  Museum,  etc. — as  also  those  resembling  the 
equal-armed  Greek  cross,  of  varied  form  (Figs,  47 — 52). 

-f-  ■^ 

Fig.  47.         Fig.  48.         Fig.  49.  Fig.  50.  Fig.  51.  Fig.  52. 

The  essentially  ornamental  character  of  these  last  figures, 
which  appear  too  upon  other  vessels  and  implements  of 
Etruscan  (.-'  or  Celtic)  origin,  e.g.,  not  seldom  upon  the  pommels 
of  dagger  or  sword  hilts,  is  indeed — from  the  frequency  of 
their  occurrence,  and  the  variety  of  modification  adopted  with 
regard  to  them — not  to  be  doubted.  To  this  extent,  however, 
Mortillet,  who  would  claim  for  them  a  religious  symbolical 
signification,  may  be  right,  viz.,  that  these  signs  too  were 
certainly  in  their  origin  designed  to  serve  for  the  expression 
of  certain  religious  ideas.  The  same  is  also  no  doubt  the 
case  with  that  beautiful  silver  vase  from  an  ancient  sepulchre 
at  Caere  (in  Etruria),  where  the  form  of  the  sign  pretty  much 
resembles  that  of  the  Egyptian  Nile-key,  but  still  more 
resembles  that  of  the  Cilician  coins  in  the  abbreviated  form 

(^      of  the  Venus'  looking-glass,  as  given  below  (Fig.  53)  ; 

"-j—     and  moreover — by  the  fact  that  it  appears  depicted  on 

Fig-  53-  the  hind  quarter  of  a  horse — gives  rise  to  the  supposi- 
tion that  we  have  in  this  case  a  representation  of  a  highly 
valuable  horse  (of  Corinthian  breed)  marked  with  the  sign 
of  the  Koppa,  a  /coTTTrar/a?,  or  miro'i  K07r7ra^6po<i,  the  mark 
of  which  in  the  present  instance  had  been  changed,  with  a 
view  to  ornamentation  or  out  of  religious  motives,  from  the 
ordinary  (Fig.  54)  into  the  more  graceful  (Fig.  55).  Other 
forms  of  a  difi"erent  kind  are  displayed  by  these  emblems 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  1 9 

upon  the  terra-cotta  vases  of  Alba  Longa,  of  which  the 
cruciform  symbols  are  probably  to  be  regarded  as  emblems 

Fig-  54-  Fig.  55. 

of  Libitina  or  Persephone,  the  terrible  queen  of  the  shades.^ 
At  any  rate  we  may  conclude  that  very  early  relations 
of  religious  culture  between  the  most  artistic  and  civilised 
people  of  ancient  Italy  and  the  peoples  of  the  East  find 
a  significant  expression  in  those  Etruscan  symbols  of  the 
cross,  even  though  with  regard  to  many  details  of  these 
relations  we  can  come  to  no  certain  results. 

The  same  is  the  case  with  the  cruciform  or  wheel-shaped 
signs  occurring  upon  coins  of  the  ancient  Gauls,  i.e.,  such 
as  represent  the  figures  (Figs.  56  and  57),  of  which  some  are 

e  €B 

Fi's;.  5^.  Fig.  57. 

shown  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Bourges,  of  Arthenay,  and 
of  Choisy-le-Roi.^     Likewise  is  it  the  case  with  other  traces 
of  a  mystic-superstitious  use  of  the  sign  of  the  cross,  within 
the  domain  of  research  into  Celtic  and  Celtiberian  antiquities, 
such  as,  e.g.,  the  peculiarly  formed  ancient  armorial  bearings 
of  the  Isle  of  ]\Ian  and  of  Sardinia  ;  also  the  remarkable  com- 
bination of  cross  and  half-moon  (Fig.  58),  shown  upon 
what  is  said  to  be  an  ancient  coin  of  the  Iberian  city     ^ 
of  Asido,  now  Medina  Sidonia,  in  the  south  of  Spain.^    '^'  ^  ' 
To  this  category  belong  further  the  T-shaped  symbols  with 

'  Millin,  Galerie  Mythologiqiie,  pi.  cxxxi.  and  cxxxv.  Comp.  Edinb.  Revieiv, 
I.e.,  238  sqq. 

^  Lelewel.  Etudes  ntimisniatiques  (cited  in  Rauch,  die  EiiiJwt  des  JMenscken- 
geschlechts,  Augsb.,  1873,  S.  321),  "La  croix  est  im  symbole  plus  ancien  dans  le 
type  gaulois  ;  elle  se  retrouve  dans  les  differens  coins  empreints  du  symbolisme, 
dans  le  coin  de  I'Armorique,  des  Andecaves,  et  elle  est  sur  la  monnaie  en  argent, 
qui  se  rattache  aux  frontieres  des  Biturgis."  Comp.  too  Mionnet,  Supplement. 
1.,  pi.  vi.,  n.  25  ;  as  also  engravings  of  Ancient  British  and  Gallic  coins  in  Ari 
Journal,  June  1874,  P-  185. 

^  J.  Zobel  de  Zangronitz,  in  the  Zcitschrift  der  d-entscheii  morgenl.  Gesellsch., 
Bd.  17  (1863),  .S.  337  ff..  expresses  no  doubt  as  to  the  pre-Christian  origin  and 
character  of  this   coin  described  by  him.     In  reality,  also  many  ancient  Galiic 


20  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

which,  according  to  an  ancient  tradition,  the  Druids  used  to 
mark  in  different  places  the  bark  of  their  sacred  trees — gigantic 
and  fair-grown  forest  trees,  to  which  they  were  wont,  by  re- 
moving all  the  other  limbs  up  to  two  opposite  ones  of  special 
magnitude,  to  give  the  form  of  a  colossal  cross  or  of  a  man  with 
outstretched  arms.^     It  has  even  been  sought  to  refer  to  this 


category  the  sign     j      or  otherwise 


,  and  similar  emblems, 


upon  old  church  bells,  inasmuch  as  they  have  been  explained 
as  magical  signs  for  warding  off  evil  spirits,  thus  as  remains  of 
old  heathen  superstition  which  had  crept  in  again  during  the 
Middle  Ages.-  The  signs  of  the  god  Thor,  engraved  upon 
Runic  monuments  of  Zealand  and  Scandinavia  (Thor's 
hammers), — along  with  w^hich  is  also  found,  remarkably 
enough,  the  Swastika  symbol,  and  that  sometimes  in  the 
artistically  interlaced  form  (Fig.  59),  belong  moreover 
to  this  class.*  Not  less  so  do  the  crosses  upon  dif- 
ferent North  German  monuments,  e.g.,  that  in  the 
Fig.  59-  w-all  of  a  sepulchral  apartment  hewn  out  in  a  hill  at 
Niedleben,  near  Halle,  close  by  which  were  also  delineations 
of  plants  and  weapons  ;  where  a  piece  of  perforated  amber, 
a  bronze  celt,  and  moreover  flint  implements,*  were  likewise 
found  in  the  same  sepulchral  chamber. 

coins,  e.g.,  one  drawn  by  De  Mortillet,  found  near  Choisy-le-Roi,  display  entirely 
similar  cruciform  emblems,  along  with  star-shaped  and,  as  it  is  said,  crescent- 
shaped  ones.  (De  Mortillet,  Signe  de  la  Croix,  p.  153.)  For  other  symbols  be- 
longing to  this  class,  see  Eug.  Hucher,  .Symbolisme  des  plus  anciennes  medailles 
gz.\.\\o\sti  (iw  iht  Jiez'ne  N'ii>?nsina/i<jHe,  1850,  1852,  1855). 

•  Maurice  says  (Indian  Antiquities,  vol.  vi.,  p.  49),  "It  is  a  fact,  not  less  re- 
markable than  well-attested,  that  the  Druids  in  their  groves  were  accustomed  to 
select  the  most  stately  and  beautiful  tree  as  an  emblem  of  the  deity  they  adored, 
and  having  cut  off  the  side  branches,  they  affixed  two  of  the  largest  of  them  to  the 
highest  part  of  the  trunk,  in  such  manner  that  these  branches  extended  on  each 
side  like  the  amis  of  a  man,  and,  together  with  the  body,  presented  the  appearance 
of  a  huge  cross  :  and  in  the  bark  in  several  places  was  also  inscribed  the  letter 
tau. "     Comp.  also  Alger,  History  of  the  Cross,  pp.  II  sqq. 

■^  Edinb.  Ret'.,  I.e.,  p.  239. 

'  Stephens,  Tfie  Old  Northern  Runic  Monuments  (London,  i860),  p.  674. 

^  F.  de  Rougement,  The  Bronte  A^e,  or  the  Semites  in  the  West.  [Page  410  ff. 
of  the  German  edition.] 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSINr,.  2  1 

A  pre-Christian  and  specifically  heathen  origin  could 
hardly,  however,  be  proved  with  absolute  certainty  in  the 
case  of  any  of  these  crosses  upon  northern  or  Germanic 
monuments.  Those  of  the  Runic  stones,  especially,  are  ad- 
mitted to  date  only  from  the  Christian  period,  and  seem  in 
great  part  to  have  originated  under  the  influence  of  Christian 
models.  On  the  other  hand,  no  reasonable  doubts  can  be 
entertained  as  to  the  ancient  heathen  origin  of  the  Scandi- 
navian-Germanic Tree  of  the  World,  or  Tree  of  Life,  the 
ash  Yggdrasill,  notoriously  the  counterpart  of  the  sacred  trees 
alike  of  Eastern  and  of  Celtic  mythology.  Rightly  does  so 
cautious  an  examiner  as  Jacob  Grimm — with  all  the  import- 
ance which  he  attaches  to  the  manifold  points  of  resemblance 
between  this  ancient  northern  myth  and  the  legends  of  the 
Middle  Ages  concerning  the  wood  of  the  cross — nevertheless 
give  as  his  judgment,  "  I  cannot  possibly  believe  that  the 
myth  of  Yggdrasill,  in  all  its  greater  fulness  of  form,  pro- 
ceeded from  this  ecclesiastical  conception  of  the  cross.  Rather 
must  the  conjecture  be  permitted  that  floating  heathen  tra- 
ditions of  the  Tree  of  the  World  were  soon  after  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity  accommodated  in  Germany,  France, 
or  England,  to  an  object  of  Christian  faith,  just  as  heathen 
temples  and  sites  were  turned  into  Christian  ones."^ 

Africa,  too,  displays  in  its  various  lands,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Egypt  and  the  districts  immediately  bordering  there- 
upon {e.g.,  the  Libyan  desert  and  Nubia),  hardly  any  other 
examples  of  the  adoration  of  the  cross  than  those  which  are 
of  Christian  origin.  So  the  custom  of  the  princes  of  Musso- 
rongho,  on  the  Loango  coast,  of  wearing  as  an  ornament 
rosaries,  sometimes  with  a  cross  attached  to  them  (tosairo), 
a  custom  distinctly  pointing  back  to  the  former  Christian 
dominion  of  the  Portuguese ;  besides  which,  also,  the  cere- 
mony of  crossing  oneself,  with  other  customs  of  a  like  origin, 
has  been  preserved — spite  of  the  fetich-idolatrous  heathenism 
into  which  in  other  respects  this  tribe  has  sunk  back.-    Rather 

'  Deutsche  Mythologic,  ii.,  758  (second  edition). 

■■^  Ad.  Bastian,  Die  deutsche  E:tpediiion  an  der  Loango-Kusie,  etc.,  Bd.  i.,  1S74, 
S.  282. 


22  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

might  even  the  cross  held  in  honour  by  the  present  heathen 
inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Socotra,  the  so-called  Bedouins, 
as  a  religious  symbol  in  their  places  of  worship,  be  of  pre- 
Christian  origin  ;  for  besides  it,  there  serve  to  them  as  objects 
of  adoration  the  moon,  and  an  idol  with  a  serpent's  head. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  much  pleads  for  the  supposition  of  a 
mixed  character  to  their  religion,  made  up  of  scanty  remains 
of  a  former  Christianity  of  St.  Thomas,  along  with  Arabian- 
Sabaean  heathenism.' 

Scarcely  can  such  an  independent  significance  be  attached 
to  that  which  is  related  concerning  the  religious  uses  made 
of  the  cross  upon  some  of  the  Oceanic  Islands,  as  to 
justify  us  in  speaking  of  Polynesian  crosses  as  a  separate 
and  original  branch  of  the  domain  of  extra-Christian  forms 
of  religion  here  under  review.  Among  the  various  figures, 
unquestionably  in  their  origin  of  religious  significance,  with 
which  the  aborigines  of  several  islands  are  wont  to  tattoo 
themselves,  occur,  among  several  other  types,  e.g.,  imitations 
of  plants  and  animals,  arabesque-like  lines,  squares,  etc.,  as 
also  cruciform  designs ;  without,  however,  these  latter  playing 
any  prominent  part.^  The  colossal  statues  of  Hermes-like 
form  discovered  upon  Easter  Island,  now  placed  in  the  British 
Museum,  bear  upon  their  reverse  side  roughly  chiselled 
cruciform  figures.^  The  possibility  of  these  marks  being  the 
work  of  later  Christian  visitors  to  the  lonely  island,  can  of 
course  hardly  be  denied.  If,  however,  we  are  to  see  in  them 
the  efforts  of  native  talent,  perhaps  of  the  same  age  and  of 
a  similar  character  to  the   remarkable  hieroglyphic  figures 

'  W.  Germann,  "das  Christen thum  auf  Socotora."  in  the  ZcitscJir.  fitr  Jiistor. 
Theologic,  1874,  H.  ii.,  S.  256. 

-  Comp.  Waitz,  Anthropol.  der  Natiu-vblker,  Bd.  vi.,  pp.  38  ff.  See  especially 
p.  32,  where  the  inhabitants  of  the  isle  of  Anaa  (belonging  to  the  Paumotu 
Archipelago)  are  spoken  of  as  "  tattooing  themselves  with  cruciform  lines,  while 
the  inhabitants  of  Rarotonga  adopted  as  their  models  crosses  and  squares  side 
by  side."  On  the  religious  significance,  originally  belonging  to  the  practice  of 
tattooing  in  general,  comp,  Wuttke,  Die  EntstLJning  der  Schrift,  Bd.  i.,  Leipzig, 
1872. 

■^  Edinb.  Rev,,  I.e.,  p.  231,  note. — A  representation  of  the  stone  monuments  in 
question,  in  Christmann  and  Oberlander,  Oceanien,  etc.  (Leipzig,  1S73),  ii.,  S.  285. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  23 

upon  some  wooden  tablets  of  the  same  island/  then  we  are 
most  naturally  led  to  regard  the  supposed  religious  motive 
which  underlies  them  as  not  of  originally  Polynesian  origin, 
but  as  having  migrated  thither  from  the  shores  of  America, 
thus  to  be  interpreted  in  the  same  way  as  the  different  forms 
of  the  pre-Christian  worship  of  the  cross  among  the  abori- 
gines of  the  New  World.  The  same  will  be  the  case  with 
many  other  traces  of  a  veneration  for  the  cross  on  the  part 
of  the  heathen  inhabitants,  discovered  upon  the  islands  of 
Micronesia,  e.g.,  upon  the  Radack  Islands,  the  Mulgrave 
Archipelago,  etc.  Some  things,  too,  of  this  kind  must  be  set 
down  as  of  directly  Christian  origin  ;  such  as,  e.g.,  the  flag 
captured  a  few  years  ago  from  the  heathen  Maori  in  New 
Zealand,  of  which  the  cross  can  hardly  have  been  anything 
else  than  an  imitation  of  the  Christian  emblem  well  known 
to  the  natives. 

On  the  cross  as  a  pre-Christian  symbol  in  the  religious 
customs  of  the  aborigines  of  AMERICA,  we  have  remarkable 
accounts  from  the  time  of  the  historians  who  recorded  the 
discovery  and  occupation  of  the  lands  and  islands  of  the  New 
Continent ;  and  since  that  time  a  not  inconsiderable  literature 
has  sprung  up. 

Among  the  more  recent  authorities  upon  this  subject  are 
to  be  mentioned  Squier,'-  a  North  American  writer,  and  the 
German  J.  G.  Miiller.^  The  territory  over  which  this  re- 
markable phenomenon  presents  itself  extends  in  pretty  equal 
proportion  throughout  South,  Central,  and  North  America- 
As  regards  Central  and  South  America,  its  existence  is 
attested  by  Spanish  historians  even  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
such  as  Las  Casas,  Herera,  Gomara,  Peter  Martyr,  Garcilaso 
de  la  Vega :  almost  all  of  these  start  with  the  presupposition 
of  very  early  Christian  influences,  especially  the  missionary 
activity  of  the  Apostle  Thomas,  as  underlying  this  pheno- 

'  Oberlander,  Oceanicn,  S.  286. 

*  G.  Squier,  The  Serpent  Symbol  in  America,  p.  98  sqq.  Comp.  his  Nicaragua, 
p.  493,  and  often  elsewhere. 

^  J.  G.  Miiller,  CcschicJite  der  amerikanischen  Urreligionen,  S.  371,  421,  496  ff. 


24  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

menon.  Even  though  they  erred  in  this  respect,  yet  the 
credibiHty  of  that  which  they  relate  concerning  the  traces  of 
a  pecuhar  worship  of  the  cross  on  the  part  of  the  aborigines, 
as  already  existing  when  the  Spanish  conquerors  arrived,  can 
hardly  be  called  in  question.  The  opinion  expressed  by 
Stephens  in  his  works  on  Central  America  and  Yucatan,  that 
the  crosses  regarded  with  religious  homage  were  introduced 
by  the  Spaniards  themselves,  deserves  to  be  mentioned  only 
as  a  literary  curiosity.^  The  sense  in  which  the  Indians  of 
South  and  Central  America  rendered  to  the  cross  rehgious 
homage,  or  at  least  made  a  religious  use  of  it,  seems  to  have 
been  everywhere  essentially  the  same.  It  is  the  fructifying 
nature-power  of  the  regions  of  earth  and  air,  and  especi- 
ally the  rain,  which  was  adored  south  as  well  as  west  and 
north  of  the  Sea  of  the  Antilles  under  the  symbol  of  the 
cross.  This  signification  of  a  rain-god  seems  to  have  been 
attached  to  the  great  cross,  consisting  of  a  single  crystal 
jasper,  which,  according  to  Garcilaso's  testimony,  was  held 
sacred  by  the  Incas  of  Peru ;  so  likewise  was  it  the  case  with 
several  other  stone  crosses  of  South  American  aborigines  as 
far  as  Paraguay ;  as  also  with  those  wooden  or  stone  crosses 
which  they  were  wont  in  Cumana  to  lay  upon  new-born 
children  in  order  to  scare  away  the  evil  spirits.  The  great 
rope-cross,  consisting  of  two  cords  stretched  above  the  sur- 
face of  a  pool  or  river,  at  whose  point  of  intersection  the 
Muysca  Indians  were  wont  to  cast  into  the  water  their  offer- 
ings, consisting  of  fruits,  precious  oil,  and  jewels,  had  unques- 
tionably a  like  significance."  Upon  the  island  of  Cozumel,  in 
Yucatan,  there  was  worshipped,  under  the  form  of  great 
crosses  of  stone,  or  even  wood,  a  divinity  of  rain  or  of  fer- 

'  J.  L.  Stephens,  Incidents  of  Travel  in  Central  America,  Chiapas,  etc. 
(London,  1842),  ii.,  20  (of  the  Gemian  edition).  Idem,  Incidents  of  Travel  in 
Yticatan,  ii.,  359  (of  the  German  edition). 

'  Comp.  Edinb.  Rev.,  p.  233,  as  well  as  the  work  of  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  N'ew 
World  (1869),  therein  cited.  Brinton  advances  in  this  work  still  farther  than 
Miiller ;  inasmuch  as  he  regards  the  cross  of  the  old  Mexicans  and  other  primitive 
American  races  as  significant  not  only  of  rain  and  fertility,  but  also  (as  was  the 
case  with  the  Kgyptians)  of  eternal  life  or  immortality. 


AS    THE    SYMBOI.    OF    BLESSING.  2$ 

tility.  Such  was  also  the  case  in  Chiapas  and  other  regions 
of  Central  America,  as  about  the  celebrated  ruins  of  Palenque, 
in  the  vicinity  of  which  there  has  been  discovered  a  figurative 
icprcsentation  having  reference  to  this  divinity  of  rain,  whicli 
shows  above  the  fantastically  decorated  (scrolled)  cross  a  bird 
— symbol  of  the  higher  region  of  air — as  well  as  right  and 
left  of  the  same  two  human  figures  who  appear  to  be  looking 
upon  the  cross  and  presenting  to  it  a  child  as  a  sacrifice/ 
Similar  crosses,  having  (above)  birds  over  them,  and  (below) 
an  apparatus  for  sacrifice  on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  are 
also  sometimes  found  depicted  on  ancient  pre-Mexican  MSS. 
Thus  there  is  to  be  seen  upon  the  last  page  of  a  manu- 
script now  existing  in  Hungary,  in  the  possession  of  a  Mr. 
Fejervary,  a  T-shaped  cross  of  this  kind,  in  the  midst  of 
which,  moreover,  appears  depicted  a  sanguinary  divinity !  - 
The  worship  in  general  offered  by  the  ancient  Mexicans  to 
their  cruciform  rain-gods  does  not  appear  to  have  been  of 
an  unbloody  kind.  The  favour  of  Centeotle,  the  "  daughter 
of  heaven  and  goddess  of  corn,"  they  sought,  we  are  told,  to 
propitiate  by  annually  in  the  spring  nailing  a  young  man  or 
maiden  to  a  cross,  and  transfixing  this  victim  with  arrows. 
Like  this  ^Mexican  Ceres  or  Proserpine,  the  principal  god  of 
the  Toltecs,  Quetzalcoatl,  a  divinity  of  the  air — whose  mantle 
is  represented  as  "  entirely  besprinkled  with  crosses  " — is  said 
also  to  have  been  worshipped  under  the  symbol  of  the  cross. 
According  to  the  statement  of  the  Toltec  historian  Ixtlilxo- 
chitl  in  Terneaux,  this  national  god  of  his  tribe  "  introduced 
the  sign  of  the  cross  and  the  adoration  of  it."  It  was  then 
called  "god  of  rain  and  of  health,  and  tree  of  sustenance 
and  of  life."  Among  the  localities  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America  in  which  this  worship  under  the  form  of  a  cross  of 
the  divinity  of  air  and  rain  existed,  are  further  specially  to 

'  A  representation  of  this  cruciform  Tree  of  Life,  or  of  the  World — said  to  be 
called  in  Mexican  TonacaquaJmitl,  "Tree  of  our  flesh" — is  given  by  Stephens; 
comp.  also  Squier,  Nicaragua,  p.  493. — We  shall  have  occasion  to  return  to  this 
subject  farther  on.  in  our  treating  of  the  cross  as  the  Symbol  of  the  Curse. 

^  Klemm,  Culiurgeschichte,  v.,  142  f.     Comp.  Midler,  as  before. 


26  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

be  mentioned  Queretaro,  Oaxaca,  Guatulco,  the  island  of  St. 
Ulloa  (celebrated  on  account  of  its  great  white  marble  cross), 
the  island  of  Zaputera  in  Lake  Nicaragua,  as  well  as  the 
province  of  Mixteca. 

As  to  the  other  parts  of  NORTH  AMERICA  besides  Mexico, 
an  early  Indian  worship  of  the  cross  is  vouched  for  as  con- 
cerns Florida  and  the  northern  districts  bordering  thereupon, 
as  far  as  Cibola,  by  Castaneda  ;^  as  regards  the  territory  about 
Hudson's  Bay,  by  the  accounts  of  Protestant  and  Catholic 
missionaries,  who  found  the  adoration  of  a  wondrous  tree  of 
the  cross — as  a  symbol  of  fertility,  or  even  as  an  instrument 
of  magical  operation — widely  diffused  among  the  Indian 
hordes  of  these  northern  regions."  A  Christian  origin  in 
the  case  of  many  of  these  North  American  customs  may 
be  shown  to  be  the  most  probable  supposition.  Especially 
to  those  tribes  living  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Atlantic  coast 
might  there  be  brought  by  the  Northmen,  or  perhaps  by 
Irish  navigators  of  the  Middle  Ages,  along  with  other  signs 
of  Western  civilisation,  also  the  sacred  symbol  of  Redemp- 
tion. The  venerable  old  man  who  once,  we  are  told, 
delivered  the  province  of  Gaspe,  south  of  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  from  an  epidemic  by  the  application  of  the 
cross,  and  enjoined  upon  those  healed  reverence  for  this 
symbol,  together  with  other  religious  customs,  can  hardly 
have  been  any  other  than  a  Christian  herald  of  the  faith 
coming  from  Europe  ;  although  the  descendants  of  his  con- 
verts, when  recently  discovered  anew  by  French  missionaries, 
had  relapsed  again  into  heathenism,  and  were  worshipping 
the  sun  along  with  the  cross.^  We  may  for  the  elucidation 
of  the  fact  in  question  recall  to  mind  the  account  of  the  mis- 
sionary journey  to  Vinland,  undertaken  about  the  year  1120 
by  the  Greenland  bishop,  Erich  Gnupson ;  we  may,  on  the 
ground  of  Scandinavian  and  Iceland  traditions  of  yet  earlier 

'  In  Temeaux,  comp.  ix.,  165  ;  also  in  Washington  Irving,  Conquest  of  Florida, 
ii.,  206. 

«  Mission sbildcr  (Cahv  u.  Stuttgart,  1864  ff.)     Heft,  v.,  S.  58  f. 

^  Maltebrun,  '*  Newest  Description  of  America,"  p.  145  of  the  Germ.  edn. 
Comp.  also  Rauch,  Einheit  d.  Menschengeschl.,  S.  363. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  2/ 

date,  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  Christian  "  Land  of  White 
Men  "  (Hvitramannaland),  on  the  coast  between  Virginia  and 
Florida ;  ^  we  may  perhaps  extend  the  influence  of  these 
Christian  expeditions  of  Western  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Ages  even  to  the  southern  west  coast  of  America,  and  sup- 
pose that  Brazil  too  and  the  bordering  lands  were  not  unvisited 
by  them.  But  to  refer  back  the  whole  of  the  traces  of  the 
worship  of  the  cross  among  the  various  primitive  nations  of 
the  New  World  exclusively  to  tJiis  source,  remains  under  any 
circumstances  a  scientific  impossibility.  In  addition  to  the 
influences  exerted  by  the  Christian  world,  we  must  here 
assume  the  action  also  of  pre-Christian  influences.  And  the 
more  uncertain  the  character  of  ever}'thing  appears,  which  is 
conjectured  regarding  the  colonisation  of  the  New  World  by 
civilised  nations  of  the  pre-Christian  Old  World  who  had 
come  in  from  the  East ;  the  more  isolated  the  discoveries  such 
as  that  of  Dr.  Lund  at  Bahia,  in  Brazil,  in  the  year  1839, 
which  is  said  to  have  embraced  the  fragments  of  a  Runic 
stone  table,  as  well  as  a  statue  of  the  god  Thor  and  a  Thor's 
hammer  (together  with  gloves  and  magic  girdle)  ; '-'  and  the 
less  there  is  afforded  in  reality  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 
earlier  American  civilisation — whether  regarded  in  general  or 
in  relation  to  the  phenomenon  in  which  we  are  specially  in- 
terested— by  such  isolated  phenomena,  which  seem  indeed  to 
testify  to  an  influence  of  the  ancient  Scandinavians  upon  the 
development  of  civilisation  in  America,  or  even  by  the  sup- 
posed traces  of  former  Phoenician  expeditions  to  the  west 
coast  of  North  or  South  America,  which  it  is  asserted  some- 

'  We  are,  in  fact,  compelled  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  such  a  Christian  land 
ttiere,  by  that  which  the  Skrellings  or  Eskimos  narrated  concerning  the  customs 
of  its  occupants  to  the  Northmen,  who  settled  in  Vinland.  There  were,  said  they, 
in  the  south,  beyond  Chesapeake  Bay,  "white  men,  who  went  about  in  long 
white  garments,  and  carried  before  them  poles  upon  which  cloths  were  hung,  and 
cried  out  with  a  loud  voice."  This  fresh  and  faithful  description  on  the  part  of 
the  natives  of  Christian  processions,  (comp.  Humbolt,  Kosm.,  ii.,  S.  71,)  vouches 
at  the  same  time,  in  a  pi-etty  direct  manner,  for  the  frequent  religious  use  of  crosses 
among  these  Christian  settlers  on  the  middle  west  coast  of  North  America. 

-  Ausland,  1840,  s.  652.  Wernicke,  Geschichte  der  Welt,  5th  edn.,  Bd.  ii., 
S.  660. 


2  8  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST, 

times  present  themselves  ;^  so  much  the  more  inevitably  are 
we  impelled   to  the   necessity  of  seeking  the  explanation  of 
such  abundant  traces  of  a  heathen-religious  use  of  the  cross, 
as  in  particular  those  of  ancient  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Central 
America,  in  the  influences  of  a  primitive  culture  extending 
from  eastern  Asia  ;  thus  to  take  into  account  the  employ- 
ment of   similar  symbols,  perceptible  as  early  as  the  Bud- 
dhistic epoch,  and  perhaps  even  in  the  pre-Buddhistic  period 
of  east  Asiatic  history,  as  the  origin  and  foundation  of  the 
corresponding  American  phenomena.     The  supposition  of  an 
independent  growth  of  these  customs  upon  purely  American 
soil,  we  need  not  by  any  means  entirely  exclude  in  connec- 
tion with  this  view.     When  it  is  asserted  by  modern  ethnolo- 
gists, such    as  Peschel,  von   Hellwald,  Fr.  Miiller,  etc.,  not 
indeed  of  the  American  races  themselves — whom  they  believe 
to  have  migrated  out  of  the  old  world  into  America  many 
thousands  of  years  ago,  while  still  in  a  condition  of  absolute 
barbarism — but  yet  of  their  earlier  development  in  civilisa- 
tion, that  this  was  of   a  perfectly  independent  nature  and 
origin ;    we  must   assent   to  this  view  as  just,  if  not  with 
regard  to  all  the  forms  of  worship  and  of  art  now  under  re- 
view, at  least  with  regard  to  some  of  them.     Squier  too,  in 
his  views  expressed  with  regard  to  the  development  of  the 
ancient  American  civilisation  in  general,  and  with  regard  to 
the  Indian  worship  of  the  cross,  the  tree,  and  the  serpent,  in 
particular,  is  favourable  to  the  supposition  of  a  decidedly 
native  origin.     Yucatan   is   regarded   by  him  as  the  central 
seat  and  primeval  hearth  whence  the  whole  of  the  symbols 
and  symbolical  rites  in  question  spread  to  the  north  and  to 
the  south.     Yet  he  has  in  thus  concluding  perhaps  in  many 
respects  proceeded  too  far,  and  has  not  sufficiently  taken  into 
account  the  striking  agreement   between   these  phenomena 
and  those  most  nearly  akin  to  them  in  the  Old  World." 

'  On  the  question  of  an  acquaintance  with  America  on  the  part  of  the  Pha-ni- 
cians,  comp.  an  article  by  the  author  :  Pscudonwabitischcs  iind  Psendoplionikisclies, 
in  the  Beivcis  dcs  Glaubens,  1874,  H.  Ii,  S.  495  ff. 

^  For  the  criticism  of  this  view  of  Squier,  so  far  as  it  specially  represents  Yucatan 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  29 

Our  general  survey  of  the  evidence  for  the  use  of  the  cross, 
in  the  pre-Christian  and  extra-Christian  rehgions,  as  a  symbol 
of  blessing,  i.e.,  as  an  object  or  means  of  direct  devotional 
homage,  and  of  corresponding  importance  for  religious  art, 
is  now  brought  to  a  close.  The  multiplicity  of  the  phe- 
nomena under  review  is  great.  A  tracing  of  them  back  to 
one  common  origin  and  starting-point  can  hardly  be  regarded 
as  a  thing  possible.  Even  as  concerns  their  outward  form  of 
delineation,  these  symbols  difter  from  each  other  in  a  very 
marked  manner.  Let  us  only  recall  to  mind  the  principal  and 
most  characteristic  types  of  the  simpler  kind  : 

-h       £L      C^       /jy^       n\  r 

X      t     T 

without  taking  into  account  the  different  figures  of  the  Tree 
of  Life — peculiarly  modified,  sometimes  in  one  direction, 
sometimes  in  another — among  the  Assyrians,  Persians,  Indian 
Buddhists,  Celts,  American  Indians,  etc.  An  historical  deri- 
vation of  all  these  figures  from  one  primal  form  of  the 
simplest  order,  serving  as  the  basis  to  them  all,  appears 
to  us  an  absolutely  insoluble  problem,  comparable  to  the 
quadrature  of  the  circle.  The  fanciful  art  of  genealogising 
displayed  by  a  Hackel  might  perhaps  at  best  prove  equal  to 
supplying  us  with  the  means  of  constructing  the  all-embracing 
family  tree  which  should  present  to  us  as  springing  forth,  all 
and  separately,  from  one  root,  the  Nile-key  and  the  Swastika 
cross,  the  Bactrian-Ptolemaic  Labarum,  and  the  old  northern 
Runic  cross,  or  Thor's  hammer  (fylfot). 

As  however  the  forms,  so  also  do  the  significations  of  these 
heathen  cross  symbols,   differ  most  considera'bly ;  so  that  a 

as  the  starting-point  of  all  the  ancient  civilisation  in  America,  comp.  a  writer,  in 
other  respects  one  in  principle  -with  Squier,  Helhvald,  "  Zur  Geschichte  des  alten 
Xuk&ia-n,"  Aiislafid,  1871,  S.  243.  For  the  rest,  Arth.  Schott,  /7;?rt'.,  p.  900  ff., 
\\ho  derives  from  the  serpent-worship  of  the  Mayas  and  other  central-American 
tribes  convincing  proofs  of  a  primal  connection  of  civilisation  with  Asia.  Similarly 
Ranch,  as  be/ore,  S.  173  ft'.,  266  ff. 


30  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

summing-up  of  them  all  under  one  fundamental  or  primal 
idea,  cannot  possibly  be  accomplished  save  by  means  of  a 
critical  act  of  violence  or  of  speculative  arbitrariness.  And 
yet  it  seems  to  us,  on  the  other  hand,  inadmissible  to  discard 
on  principle  every  attempt  at  gaining  a  certain  common  point 
of  view,  if  not  for  all  of  the  phenomena  coming  under  review, 
at  least  for  one  or  other  part  thereof.  Evidently  nothing  is 
gained  and  nothing  is  explained  by  such  generalities  as  that 
"  the  cross  is  a  symbol  chosen  merely  as  the  result  of  acci- 
dent ;  "  or  that  "  such  symbols,  like  a  disease,  are  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation/'  ^  Indistinct  and  mystical — 
and  moreover  only  applicable  to  a  smaller  portion  of  the 
actually  occurring  cases  of  a  religious  use  of  the  cross  in 
heathendom — appears  the  view  of  Mortillet,  according  to 
which  the  four  forms  of  the  cross-symbols  of  ancient  monu- 
ments are  all  to  be  derived  from  the  practice  of  one  primal, 
widely  extended  secret  sect,  the  followers  of  a  purer  and 
.more  spiritual  kind  of  worship,  who  refrained  from  the  ordi- 
nary conceptions  and  rites  of  idolatry,  and  as  such  are  to  be 
looked  upon  as  more  direct  precursors  of  Christianity.  In 
itself  the  great  diversity  of  the  symbolism  of  the  cross  in 
different  lands,  the  radically  dissimilar  character  of  the 
emblems  in  question,  as  well  as  that  of  the  accompanying 
circumstances  under  which  they  arise,  speaks  against  such 
an  hypothesis.^  Unquestionably  some  of  the  significations 
which,  according  to  ancient  tradition  and  also  according  to 
modern  archaeological  investigation,  underlie  the  religious  use 
of  the  symbol,  were  diffused  more  widely  than  merely  over 
the  district  of  one  tribe  or  the  religion  of  one  nation.  The 
crosses  of  the  American  aborigines  would  seem — so  far  as 
they  are  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  introduced  by  Christians 
coming  into  that  continent — for  the  greater  part  to  harmonise 
in  the  signification  of  a  I'ain-god  or  fructifying  power  of 
nature.  To  proceed  farther  than  this,  and  assume  with  J.  G. 
Muller   that   the   idea   of  "  Peace,"  or   with   Brinton  that  of 

'  Comp.  Magaz.  f.  d.  Literatur  des  Aiislands,  1S73,  No.  13,  i. 
^  For  a  critique  of  Mortillet's  work,  comi^.  Appendix  I. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  3 1 

"  Life  and  Immortality,"  is  symbolised  by  the  greater  number 
of  them,  is  hardly  to   be  justified/     The  concrete  historical 
points  of  attachment  for  such  metaphysical  exaltation  of  the 
notion  expressed  by  them  of  an  external  salutary  power  of 
nature,  are   too  greatly  wanting.     But  beyond  the  limits  of 
America,  this   significance  of  the  cross-symbols  pointing  to 
divinities  of  fruitfulness  and  of  rain  is  less  prominent.     Even 
among  the  natives   of  that    continent   in   which  we   miorht 
expect  more  than  anywhere  to  meet  with  it — namely,  Africa 
— there  is  scarcely  a  trace  of  it  to  be  found.     On  the  other 
hand,  the   primal  and   fundamental  signification  peculiar  to 
the   most  favourite    cruciform   figure    of   the  Egyptians,  the 
Ansate  cross,  that  of  the  life-giving  Sunlight,  seems  to  have 
enjoyed  a   pretty  widespread   reception.      To    suppose  with 
Rapp  and  others  that  it  was  universally  diffused  throughout 
the  ancient  world,  and  to  derive  from  it  all  the  modifications 
of  the  cross  among  the  heathen  of  Asia  and  of  Europe,  how- 
ever greatly  diverging   in  form   from  this — e.g.,  the  ancient 
Bactrian   Labarum — is  certainly  not  at  all  admissible.     Yet 
assuredly  that  wheel-shaped  cross  of  the  Assyrian-Babylonian 
monuments,  and  originally  also  the   Indian   Swastika   cross, 
may  have  expressed  a  reference  to  the  worship  of  the  sun. 
So  too  some  of  the  symbols  belonging  to  this  class  current 
among  the  Celts  and  ancient  northern  peoples  may  have  ex- 
pressed the  same  reference.     But  in  addition  to  this  relation 
to  the  sun,  there  were  also  some  other  peculiar  relations  of 
the  cross-worship  among  the  ancient  nations  of  the  eastern 
civilised  world,  which  can  be  only  artificially  and  with  violence 
referred  back  to  that  of  the  sun-worship.     This  is  seen  in  the 

'  Comp.  Miiller,  Amerik.  Urreligionoi,  S.  499  ;  as  well  as  Biinton,  Myths  of 
the  Neio  World,  p.  96  :  "As  the  emblem  of  the  winds,  who  dispense  the  fertilising 
showers,  it  is  emphatically  the  tree  of  our  life,  our  subsistence,  and  our  health. 
It  never  had  any  other  meaning  in  America ;  and  if,  as  it  has  been  said,  the  tombs 
of  the  Mexicans  were  cruciform,  it  was  perhaps  with  reference  to  a  resurrection, 
and  to  a  future  life  as  portrayed  under  this  symbol,  indicating  that  the  buried  body 
would  rise  by  the  action  of  the  four  spirits  of  the  world,"  etc.  Rightly  does  the 
critic  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  (p.  234)  speak  of  this  interpretation  as  "involving 
a  little  too  much;"  but  himself  maintains  the  idea  of  a  renewing  of  life  or  re- 
juvenescence as  common  to  the  different  American  forms  of  the  cross- worship. 


32  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Tree  of  Life  of  the  peoples  of  the  Euphrates,  of  the  Persians, 
and  the  Indians,  and  in  the  Venus'  Looking  Glass  of  the 
Assyrians,  Phoenicians,  races  of  Asia  Minor,  Greeks,  etc.  It 
may  be  that  a  mode  of  interpretation  which  gives  a  deeper 
and  more  spiritual  religious  meaning  would  be  able  to  derive 
and  develop  from  all,  or  at  least  from  almost  all  of  these 
forms  of  the  ancient  cross-worship,  a  like  sublimated  idea,  as 
'•'  everlasting  life^'  innnortality,  or  resurrection.  It  is  possible 
that  such  method  of  developing  the  deeper  idea  was  actually 
practised  here  and  there,  by  priestly  sages,  upon  the  banks  of 
the  Nile,  as  of  the  Euphrates  and  Ganges ;  upon  the  Eranian 
as  upon  the  Tibetian  plateaus ;  yea,  perhaps  even  upon  the 
highlands  of  Anahuac,  and  in  the  lands  of  the  Mayas  and  the 
Incas.  But  then  surely  this  took  place  only  as  a  result  of 
later  abstraction,  and  by  giving  play  to  a  religious-philosophic 
speculation  similar  to  that  which  moulded  the  childishly  simple 
nature-belief  of  the  ancient  Indians  in  the  time  of  the  Vedas 
into  Brahmaism  ;  or  that  which  formed  out  of  the  gods  and 
hero-myths  of  the  Homeric  and  post-Homeric  Hellenism  the 
doctrine  of  the  Orphic  and  Pythagorean  mysteries.  There  is, 
in  accordance  with  our  whole  previous  exposition  of  these 
symbols,  no  room  for  supposing  that  the  different  forms  of 
the  pre-Christian  cross-worship  originally  proceeded  from  the 
idea  of  everlasting  salvation,  or  of  the  future  life — as  an 
original  foundation  common  to  them  all — which,  in  proportion 
to  the  greater  or  less  degree  of  preference  with  which  some- 
times the  one,  sometimes  the  other  form  of  its  symbolisation 
has  been  cultivated,  had  developed  itself  into  different  secon- 
dary modes  of  conception  and  presentation. 

Moreover,  the  remarkable  endeavour  on  the  part  of  the 
British  scholar,  in  the  Edinburgh  Review — already  so  often 
referred  to  by  us — to  show  that  not  the  notion  of  life,  or 
immortality,  or  sun,  or  rain,  etc.,  but  rather  that  of  Paradise, 
is  the  common  foundation  and  starting-point  for  all  the  dif- 
ferent forms  of  the  heathen  cross-worship,  can  hardly  be 
regarded  as  successful.  This  article,  which  displays  admi- 
rable religious-historic  lore,  but  yet  is  characterised   rather 


AS. THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  :33 

by  a  bold  flight  of  the  imagination  than  by  a  sober  consistency 
in  the  maintenance  of  truly  philosophic  principles,  prepares 
the  way  for  the  attaining  of  this  Paradise-theory,  by  tracing 
back  the  whole  of  the  symbols  of  the  cross  in  the  Old  World 
and  the  New,  in  the  first  place,  to  three  fundamental  concep- 
tions of  a  sensuous  or  material  kind,  and  then  comprehending 
these  three  under  the  one  idea  of  Paradise,  or  the  original 
blissful  abode  of  mankind.  For  he  proceeds  from  the  assump- 
tion that  (i),  as  is  shown  by  the  cross-worship  of  all  the 
American  tribes,  and,  moreover,  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Baby- 
lonians (?),  and  the  ancient  Indians — among  whom  is  especially 
worshipped  under  the  symbol  of  the  cross,  Vishnu,  the  water- 
divinity  who  holds  sway  over  all  rivers  and  lakes, — the  fructi- 
fying and  refreshing  natural  power  of  ivater  formed  a  first 
main  element  of  symbolisation  for  the  ancient  heathen  repre- 
sentatives of  the  mystic  superstition  in  question.  He  assumes 
further  (2),  again  relying  upon  the  support  of  ancient  Indian, 
Babylonian-Assyrian,  and  Persian,  but  also  upon  that  of  Celtic, 
Northern,  and  American  documents,  that  the  conception  of  a 
luxuriously  verdant  and  blossoming  tree,  which  bears  sweet 
fruit,  or  the  nearly  allied  idea  of  some  other  fresh  and  living 
product  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  as,  for  instance,  a  lotus 
flower — underlies  the  various  cruciform  emblems.  Or  he 
seeks  (3),  appealing  for  support  specially  to  the  Ansate  cross 
of  the  Babylonians — sometimes  conically  formed  in  its  lower 
part,  and  then,  as  it  is  alleged,  standing  in  special  relation 
to  the  service  of  Astarte  or  Venus — as  well  as  to  that  which 
is  somewhat  akin,  namely,  the  phallic  symbols  of  different 
peoples,  to  show  that  the  idea  of  a  hill  or  mountain  is  likewise 
frequently  involved  in  that  of  the  worship  of  the  cross ;  and 
to  prove  the  existence  of  a  number  of  cruciform  monuments — 
in  addition  to  the  pagodas  of  India,  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  etc. 
— especially  of  the  class  of  the  so-formed  megaliths,  dolmens 
or  cromlechs,^  as  symbolisations  of  the  mythic  mountain  of 
the  gods,  the  abode  of  the  blessed.  In  combining  these 
three  relative  main  allusions  of  the  symbolism  of  the  cross, 

'  Comp.  above,  p.  lo. 


34  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

i.e.,  such  as  do  not  appear  generally  and  universally,  but 
only  over  a  more  limited  extent  of  territory,  into  one  general 
conception,  that,  namely,  of  the  high-lying  region  of  Para- 
dise, watered  with  streams,  and  furnished  with  precious  fruit 
trees,  he  believes  he  has  attained  to  the  common  primal  and 
fundamental  notion  underlying  all  such  religious  emblems 
of  antiquity.  The  water  crosses,  tree  crosses,  and  phallus  (!) 
crosses,  or  hill  crosses,  serve  him  as  elements  for  the  con- 
struction of  this  remarkable  hypothesis,  in  which  naturally 
the  symbol  of  the  mountain  or  hill,  as  the  birthplace  of  the 
streams  and  home-land  of  the  trees  of  life,  plays  a  leading 
part.  Some  striking  points  of  contact  with  the  well-known 
traditions  of  Paradise,  or  the  mountain  of  the  gods,  among 
ancient  nations,  certainly  lend  support  to  this  fanciful  con- 
struction. Thus  the  round,  sweet  festival  cake,  ornamented 
with  a  cross,  borne  by  the  Egyptian  worshippers  of  Isis,  which 
as  an  hieroglyph  had,  according  to  Wilkinson,  a  signification 
equivalent  to  "cultivated  land,"  "garden,"  and  consequently 
could  in  reality  be  looked  upon  as  an  image  of  Paradise, 
presented  under  the  form  of  a  cross.  So  too  do  the  four 
rivers  of  Paradise,  according  to  the,  on  this  point,  unanimous 
traditions  of  the  Semites,  the  Persians,  Indians,  Chinese,  and 
Germans — to  which  fourfold  character  the  four  arms  of  the 
cross,  especially  in  that  ancient  Indian  and  Babylonian- 
CT\  Assyrian  form  (Fig.  60)  seem  to  point.  More  than  this. 
Fig.  60.  that  tradition  of  the  Buddhists  of  Northern  India,  to  which 
allusion  has  before  been  made,  expressly  characterises  the 
Swastika  cross  as  an  emblem  of  the  "western  Paradise."  To 
this  Indian  testimony,  accordingly,  our  Essayist  particularly 
appeals  in  favour  of  his  hypothesis.  "  If,  in  conclusion,"  he  says, 
"  any  reader  entertains  a  lingering  doubt  respecting  the  real 
object  and  purpose  of  the  symbol  of  the  cross,  ...  if  this  long 
series  of  coincidences,  this  immense  accumulation  of  facts,  all, 
as  we  have  endeavoured  to  show,  converging  to  a  single  point, 
is  insufficient  to  convince  any  reader  of  its  true  significance^ 
we  can  only  remind  him  once  more  of  the  fond  expectations, 
the  typical  j^hilosophy  of  the  existing  races  of  mankind;  refer 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  3  5 

him  to  the  most  primitive  and  learned  people  in  the  East — 

'  Those  heirs  of  all  the  ages  in  the  foremost  file  of  time' — 
appeal  to  the  united  testimony  of  Buddhists  and  Brahmins  (?), 
who  together  constitute  nearly  half  the  population  of  the 
world,  and  from  whom  he  may  learn  that  the  decussated 
figure,  whether  in  a  simple  or  a  complex  form,  symbolises 
the  traditional  happy  abode  of  their  primeval  ancestors — 
that  '  Paradise  of  Eden  towards  the  East,'  as  we  find  it 
expressed  in  the  Hebrew."  ^ 

We  are  unable  to  own  ourselves  converts  to  the  belief  in 
Paradise,  in  this  new  and  peculiar  form.  However  highly  we 
rate  the  significance  of  the  traditions  of  Paradise  or  the 
golden  age,  among  so  many  ancient  peoples,  as  a  venerable 
reminiscence  of  the  primitive  period  of  our  race,  and  as  an 
important  testimony  to  the  character  of  revelation  which 
belongs  to  the  Biblical  Monotheism  in  general,'^  it  seems  to 
us  inadmissible  to  institute  between  these  Paradise  traditions 
and  the  pre-Christian  heathen  cross-worship — not  merely 
occasional  and  isolated  points  of  contact,  but — a  tlior'ongh 
historic  and  genetic  connection  ;  thus,  as  our  Essayist  does, 
to  place  every  form  and  stamp  of  that  symbolism  of  the  cross 
in  more  or  less  direct  relation  to  the  tradition  of  a  blissful 
primitive  dwelling-place  of  man  and  starting-point  of  the 
human  development.  Among  the  Indians  the  custom  may 
have  been  formed  at  an  early  period  of  indicating  the  notion  of 
Paradise  by  the  sign  (Fig.  6i)  and  (Fig.  62),  or  a  similar  figure. 


+ 


Fig.  61.  Fig.  62. 

But  not  even  among  them  were  these  conventional  Semiotics 
universally  accepted  :  that  "the  combined  testimony  of  Bud- 
dhists and  Brahmins  "  pleads  in  favour  thereof,  is  an  altogether 
baseless  assertion  on  the  part  of  our  Essayist.  Besides  the 
relation  to  Paradise,  other  significations  of  the  Swastika  cross 

'  As  before,  p.  254  f. 

-  Comp.  our  article  upon  Liiken's   "  Traditionen  des  Menschengeschlechts,"  in 
the  BciMis  dcs  Glaubc'iis,  1869,  S.  463  ff. ;  especially  S.  467. 


36  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

have  come  into  vogue  ;  of  these,  that  which  refers  it  to  the 
sun's  path  in  the  echptic,  and  to  the  four  cardinal  points,  is 
possibly  an  older  and  more  original  interpretation  than  that 
which  explains  it  of  Paradise.     The  latter  interpretation  even 
appears,  as  was   shown   above,  not   entirely   free   from    the 
suspicion  of  being  an  importation  from  the  Christian  west ; 
inasmuch  as  it  is  probably  not  of  earlier  date  than  the  fourth 
or  fifth  century  of  the  Christian  aera.     Moreover,  this  very 
tradition  of  the  northern  Buddhists,  which  places  the  garden 
indicated  under  the  form  of  the  cross  to  the  west  (of  them) — 
and  to  this  extent  is  in  harmony  with  the  Hebrew  tradition 
of  the  "  Garden  of  Eden  in  the  East " — speaks  not  of  four,  but 
of  seven  waters  of  Paradise.     Conversely,  in  those  types  of 
the  Paradise  tradition  which  expressly  emphasise  the  number 
four  in  connection  with  the  rivers,  as  something  essential  and 
of  profound  import,  there  is  no  trace,  or  next  to  none,  to  be 
seen,  of  a  tendency  to  the  symbolisation  of  these  four  rivers 
by  the  four  arms  of  a  cross.     Then,  again,  the  majority  of 
the  more  widely-diffused  forms  of  the  cross  present  in  general 
no   clearly   perceptible   relation  to   Paradise,  and  are  much 
more  easily  explicable  in  any  other  sense  than  precisely  one 
favourable  to  the  hypothesis  of  our  Essayist.     Only  the  Tree 
of  Life  among  the  peoples  of  the  Euphrates,  the  Persians,  the 
Celts,  etc.,  seems — as  will   presently   be  further  shown — to 
include  a  reference  to  the  tradition  of  Paradise.     And  just 
this  belongs  to  the  number  of  symbols  which  do  not  directly 
and  clearly  express  the  figure  of  a  cross,  but  only,  as  it  were, 
distantly  and  in  a  veiled  manner — as  a  crtex  dissiimdata.     Of 
those  symbols  more  clearly  comprised  under  the  form  of  a 
cross,  the  Egyptian  Nile  key  far  more  naturally  admits  of 
a  reference   to   the   sun-worship,  than  to    Paradise  with   its 
streams.     Even  in  the  case  of  a  spiritualising  interpretation 
of  this  symbol,  the  old  traditional  reference  to  everlasting  life 
may  indeed  be  very  readily  made  out  ;  but  that  to  the  past 
glory  of  Paradise,   only  with  difficulty  and  in  an  artificial 
manner.     The  alleged  "  conical  form,"  or  phallus  relation,  of 
symbols  like  the  Nile  key  upon  Babylonian  or  other  farther 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  37 

Asiatic  monuments  is,  however,  something  altogether  preca- 
rious, perhaps  only  accidental.  If  it  is  really  present  as  an 
important  fact,  it  is  much  more  likely  to  contain  a  reference 
to  the  Venus  worship  of  these  lands  than  to  any  reminiscences 
of  the  Paradisiac  "  mountain  of  the  gods  "  of  the  first  age.^ 
The  same  is  the  case  with  the  cruciform  symbols  of  the 
Americans  and  other  peoples — symbols  which,  in  their 
primary  and  perhaps  only  signification,  convey  the  idea  of 
rain  and  fruitfulness.  If  in  addition  to  this  more  immediate 
another  and  deeper  one  must  be  conceded  to  them,  then  as  such 
the  notion  of  "life,  future  life,  immortality,"  is  on  the  average 
fully  as  suitable  as  that  of  a  lost  Paradise,  and  in  the  majority 
of  cases  much  more  so.  As  a  rule,  however — since,  in  not  a 
few  cases,  even  the  thought  of  immortality  or  the  hope  of  a 
blissful  life  beyond  the  grave,  is  not  to  be  recognised  with 
sufficient  clearness  as  an  object  of  the  symbolisation — in  the 
case  of  the  majority  of  the  symbols  in  question  we  shall  be 
justified  only  in  claiming  as  their  deeper  signification  that 
of  "life,"  or  "deliverance,"  or  "blessing"  in  general.  The 
attempt,  in  the  article  above  frequently  mentioned,  to  bring 
to  a  point  this  notion  of  religious  well-being  or  blessing  in 
the  historically  concrete  notion  of  Paradise,  could  succeed  only 
by  dint  of  a  violent  drawing  together  and  pressing  into  one 
of  a  great  number  of  dissimilar  elements  and  heterogeneous 
relations,  with  the  result  of  thus  forming  a  thoroughly  artifi- 
cial unity,  and  one  entirely  wanting  in  historic  truth. 

Still  less  capable  of  defence  is  the  attempt  already  made 
by  many — e.g.,  after  the  example  of  Ghillany,  by  F.  Nork  in 
his  Etymologisch-symbolisch-»mythol'Ogisches  Realworterbuch 
— of  tracing  back  the  whole  of  the  pre-Christian  religious 
symbols  of  the  cross  to  the  phallus-worship — the  immoral 
rites  presented  to  the  rude  powers  of  nature,  among  many 
ancient  peoples.  As  regards  the  Ansate  cross  of  the  Egyp- 
tians and  inhabitants  of  Farther  Asia,  this  hypothesis  may 
possibly  be  advanced  with  at  least  a  certain  show  of  truth. 
But  its  application  to  the  great  variety  of  remaining  forms, 

'  Comp.   Appendix  IL,  No.  5. 


38  THE    CROSS    OF    CHraST. 

which  here  come  under  review,  is  an  impossibility.  A  few 
attempts  made  with  this  end  in  view  would  not  only  call 
forth  most  break-neck  operations  in  respect  to  etymological 
and  archaeological  criticism,  but  would  demand  as  their  indis- 
pensable requirement  an  imagination  of  such  a  kind  that  its 
possessor  is  hardly  to  be  envied. 

It  is  a  multiplicity  of  cosmical  views  and  conceptions,  no 
single  primal  idea,  from  Avhich  the  symbolics  of  the  cross  in 
heathendom  have  arisen.  A  number  of  dissimilar  conceptions 
was  the  only  possible  foundation  for  the  complex  of  emble- 
matical representations  here  under  review ;  and  the  more  so, 
since  THE  VISIBLE  CREATION — from  the  objects  of  which  the 
activity  of  the  non-revealed  religions  in  general  receives  its 
impulse  to  the  formation  of  its  myths  and  dogmas,  and  more- 
over derives  its  models — PRESENTS  IN  NONE  OF  its  domains 
A  FIGURE  BEARING  A  STRIKING  RESEMBLANCE  TO  A  CROSS. 
The  cross  is  nowhere  reflected  in  nature  in  any  remarkably 
prominent  or  frequently  recurring  manner.  It  appears  scarcely 
more  distinctly  incorporated  in  the  terrestrial  or  celestial 
world  of  phenomena  around  us,  or  more  perceptible  to  the 
eye  in  nature,  than,  r.^.,  the  m}'stery  of  the  Trinity  ;  of  which 
the  cosmical  reflections  constantly  present  themselves,  less 
as  sensible  signs  than  as  relations  of  triplicity- — thus  more 
as  triple  harmonies  than  as  triangles  or  triads.^  A.  v. 
Humboldt  expressed  his  surprise  that  the  most  distinct  and 
at  the  same  time  most  striking  of  all  the  cruciform  figures 
of  the  visible  cosmos — the  Southern  Cross,  which  adorns  the 
starry  heavens  of  the  Tropics — icas  never,  either  in  classical 
antiquity,  or  in  the  earlier  centuries  of  Christendom  up  to  the 
time  of  the  great  discoveries  and  of  the  Reformation,  at  all 
recognised  as  a  c7'iicifori]i  figure ;  that  Ptolemy,  with  great  lack 
of  aisthetical  perception,  ranged  it  under  the  hind  feet  of  the 
constellation  of  the  Centaur ;  that  the  Christian  anchorites  of 
the  Thebaid  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  who  had  such 

'  See  the  author's  Theologia  iiatiiralis,  p.  660  ff.  The  views  there  developed 
concerning  the  reflection  of  the  Holy  Trinity  in  the  kingdom  of  nature  and  of 
mind,  aie  espoused  in  their  essential  particulars  by  Kahnis,  LitthcriscJtc  Dogviatik, 
I.  368  of  the  new  edition. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BI,ESSING,  39 

excellent  opportunities  for  witnessing  it,  do  not  appear  to 
have  noticed  such  resemblance;  that  Dante,  in  the  celebrated 
passage  of  the  Purgatorio^  in  which  he  expresses  his  acquaint- 
ance with  that    wondrously  brilliant    phenomenon,  indicates 
it  only  by  the  expression  "four  stars"  (quattro  stelle) ;  that 
even  Amerigo  Vespucci,  in  the  year   1501,  is  able  only  to 
speak  of  four  resplendent  stars  which  formed  a  rhomboidal 
figure  (una  mandorla),  and  that  only  with  the  epoch-making 
years  of  the  Reformation,  15 17  and  1520,  in  the  person  of  the 
Florentine  Corsali,  and  in  that  of  Pigafetta,  the  companion  of 
Magelhaen  in  his  circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  the  recog- 
nition of  the  cruciform  character  of  this  fair  constellation 
appears  to  have  been  made,^     That  which  especially  surprises 
him    in   all   this,  is   the    fact   that   the  said    constellation — 
"  although  the  form  of  the  cross  is  so  strikingly  presented  in 
it,  and  so  remarkably  individualises  itself,  in  separation  "  from 
that    of  the   other   constellations — yet  first  became  of  im- 
portance   in    the    study   of    nature,   and    in   the   devotional 
contemplation  of  nature,  as  the  representation   of  the  cross, 
only  in  modern  times.     Even  in  this  case,  scarcely  so  urgent 
a  necessity  impels   us   to  fill  up  the   outline  of  these  four 
stars  into   a   quincunx,   and   to    look  upon  this   as  a  figure 
of  the  cross,  as  in  the  star-cross  of  the  northern  hemisphere, 
the  "Swan"  of  the  older  astronomers;  although  in  the  case 
of  the  latter  constellation  the  less  brilliant  lustre  of  the  stars, 
and  the  diversion  of  the  eye  by  the  transcending  magnitude 
of  its  immediate  neighbours,  such  as  Vega,  have  prevented 
the  early  and   general  attention  of  religiously  disposed  ob- 
servers of  the  marvels  of  the  heavens  being  drawn  to  it.     In 
reality,  the  observing  of  one  or  other  of  these  constellations 
can  hardly  thus  have  formed  the  first  impelling  motive  for  one 
out  of  the  many  instances  above  enumerated  of  the  adora- 
tion of  the  cross  on  the  part  of  the  ancient  heathen.     Much 
rather  must  we  suppose  that,  either  the  sun  or  some  brightly 
luminous  planet  or  other,  particularly  Venus,  served  as  the 

^  Canto  I. ,  V.  22 — 24. 
^  ICosiHOS,  II.,  205  ff. 


40  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

prototype  for  certain  characteristic  forms  of  the  pre-Christian 
symboHsm  of  the  cross ;  so  that  in  this  way  the  cross  really 
presented  itself  as,  according  to  the  expression  of  Hamann, 
"  a  star  deprived  of  its  rays  ; "  served  thus  as  an  abbreviature 
of  the  formal  representation  of  a  star  or  sun,  and  appears  to 
have  been  derived  from  the  natural  phenomenon  underlying 
it,  rather  by  the  process  of  mental  abstraction  than  that  of 
direct  imitation.  Still  more  difficult  would  it  appear  to  be  to 
find  scientific  justification  for  the  attempt,  presently  to  be 
spoken  of,  on  the  part  of  Bohme  and  Baader,  to  conceive  of 
lightning  or  fire  (light)  as  a  power  manifesting  itself  under 
the  form  of  a  cross  ;  or  to  make  good  the  supposition  that 
some  definite  kind  of  natural  existence,  belonging  to  the 
sphere  of  the  organic  or  inorganic  earthly  creation,  was 
immediately  represented  by  the  symbolism  of  the  cross  in 
the  pre-Christian  age.  The  form  of  the  cross  is  not  presented 
in  a  striking  manner,  and  with  sufficiently  frequent  recurrence, 
either  in  the  mineral  kingdom  or  in  the  animal  or  vegetable 
creation,  for  it  to  have  given  occasion  to  the  formation  of 
symbolic  figures,  such  as  those  above  described,  of  the  Nile 
key,  Swastika  symbol,  labarum,  etc.  Nay,  it  appears  abso- 
lutely rare,  and  only  exceptionally  as  a  sharply  defined  and 
"  separately  individualised  "  figure,  in  those  realms  of  nature. 
The  staurolith,  a  granite  whose  crystals  have  assumed  a 
peculiarly  regular  cross-formation,  the  harmatom  or  cross- 
stone,  and  the  chiastolith  or  hlospath — with  beautiful 
quincunx-like  design — are  minerals  of  comparatively  rare 
occurrence,  and  are  formed  in  part  by  abnormal  growths  in 
the  process  of  crystallisation.  The  same  may  be  said  too  of 
the  double  or  streaked  pyritoid  sometimes  occurring  in  the 
pyrites,  the  so-called  iron  cross,  and  other  intersecting  or 
radiated  crystals.^  In  the  vegetable  kingdom,  too,  there  is 
presented — spite  of  the  frequency  of  such  names,  and  the 
pretty  common  occurrence  of  such  classes  as  the  cross-fern, 
cross-flower  (milk-wort),  cross-wort,  cross-thorn  (buckthorn), 

'  Comp.    Naumann,   Elanente  dcr  Mineralogie  (3rcl  edn.),  S.  281,   311,   324; 
Oken,  A'atiirgeschichie,  I.  S.  400. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  4I 

cross-pink,  etc. — but  very  rarely  an  externally  sharply  defined 
conformity  to  the  cruciform  type,  perceptible  at  a  distance. 
[This  applies  still  more  to  the  salutary  order  of  the  cruciferous 
plants.]  And  in  the  animal  kingdom,  the  species  which  are 
cross-shaped,  or  which  bear  a  cruciform  design,  are  compara- 
tively rare,  and  in  any  case  not  very  conspicuous.  The  arctic 
or  cross-fox,  this  sufficiently  rare,  black-striped  variety  of  the 
ordinary  fox,  the  Brazilian  cross-frog  (Sapo),  and  the  cross- 
adder,  surely  hardly  afford  an  explanation  for  the  existence 
of  such  a  religious  symbolism  as  that  above  considered  in  its 
most  prominent  examples  ;  and  certainly  still  less  so,  such 
smaller  members  of  the  animal  kingdom  as  the  beautifully 
marked  beetle,  Carabiis  cnix  inajo7',  and  the  C.  crux  minor, 
the  cross-spider,  cross-medusa,  etc.  Or  may  the  mystic  con- 
ception, in  favour  with  the  Fathers  from  the  time  of  Justin 
and  Tertullian,  which  sees  in  the  flight  of  birds,  yea,  even  in 
the  swimming  of  fish  and  the  bounding  of  deer,  the  shadowing 
forth  of  the  cross,  in  reality  have  been  formed  even  before 
the  death  of  the  Redeemer  on  the  cross  had  become  a  posi- 
tive fact  of  salvation  .''  Could  an  interpretation  so  artificial, 
one  so  much  the  product  of  reflection,  and  importing  so  much 
into  the  symbol,  have  indeed  sprung  up  upon  pre-Christian 
soil .''  ^  It  would  thus  surely  be  more  natural  to  account  for 
the  origin  of  the  cross-symbolism  of  the  heathen  worship, 
by  the  existence  of  that  cross,  which  as  an  ideal  form  under- 
lies the  figure  of  a  normally  developed  man,  standing  erect 
with  outstretched  arms — of  which,  according  to  the  Church 
Fathers,  the  sculptors  among  the  ancients,  made  use  as  a 
standard  in  the  formation  of  their  images  of  the  gods,  and 
the  Roman  soldiers  as  a  stand  on  which  to  hang  up  their 
trophies  !  '  But  it  is  evident  that  by  such  a  supposition,  not 
a  single  one  of  the  emblems  with  which  Ave  are  acquainted — 

'  Gorres  {Christlkhe  Mystik,  I.  37)  still  commends  the  profoundness  and  aptness 
of  this  mode  of  view,  according  to  %Thich  "the  bird  flies  in  the  form  of  a  cross, 
when  now — with  head  thrown  forward  and  wings  outstretched — he  \\'ith  tail  and 
feet  directs  his  flight  to  the  goal  before  his  eye";  according  to  which,  moreover, 
in  this  form  "  the  fish  cleaves  the  waves,  the  hart  springs  over  the  mountains,"  etc. 

*  Minucius  Felix,  Octav.,  c.  29;  Tertullian,  Apologet.,  c.  16. 


42  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Nile  key,  labarum,  Swastika  cross,  etc. — would  be  rightly 
interpreted,  i.e.,  interpreted  in  accordance  with  its  true  his- 
toric signification.  In  this  way  we  should,  at  any  rate,  be 
just  as  far  from  attaining  the  end  of  a  sound  and  really 
satisfactory  explanation  for  the  phenomena  with  which  we 
are  occupied,  as  though  we  should  assume  as  the  primal  and 
fundamental  ground  thereof,  the  double  or  treble  axis-crosses 
of  the  mineral  crystal  forms,  and  would  thus  credit  their 
childishly  simple  authors  in  hoary  antiquity  with  a  knowledge 
of  crystallography. 

Only  of  one  characteristic  main  type  in  this  province  do 
we  feel  justified  in  supposing  that  here  a  direct  imitation  of 
nature  had  actually  taken  place.  Inasmuch  as  the  Trep: 
OF  Life  of  ancient  Aryan  and  Semitic  tradition  is  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  symbols  of  the  cross  in  the  wider  sense, 
we  must  certainly  assume  as  the  originating  cause  of  the 
adoption  of  this  special  form,  or  at  least  as  a  co-operating 
factor  in  this  result,  a  frequent  imitation  of  concrete  models 
in  nature — thus  fruit  trees  dispensing  life  and  blessing  ;  as 
in  Citerior  Asia  the  date  palm,  in  India  the  sacred  fig,  or 
banian  tree,  the  banana,  etc.  Such  noble  models  and  master- 
pieces in  the  vegetable  creation  served  as  a  welcome  revival 
and  refreshing  for  the  ideal  original  figure  of  the  Tree  of 
Life,  which  from  the  time  of  Paradise  had  here  remained, 
now  in  the  more  faint,  now  in  the  more  distinct  reminiscence 
of  the  peoples,  an  object  of  their  longing.  To  this,  there- 
fore, does  the  creative  fancy  and  plastic  art  in  the  realm  of 
the  earliest  religious  development  especially  attach  itself; 
from  its  annually  renewed  glorious  putting  forth  of  foliage, 
blossoming,  and  fruit-bearing,  the  ancients  must  have  mainly 
derived  the  thought  of  clothing,  in  a  bodily  form,  that  para- 
disiac ideal  of  longing,  which  also  gradually  became  the 
inspiring  ideal  of  the  future,  the  emblem  of  everlasting  life 
(comp.  Ezek.  xlvii.  12;  Rev.  ii,  7,  xxii.  2  ff)  Even  in  recent 
times,  a  grateful  admiration  of  the  blessing  diffused  by  such 
wondrous  trees  of  the  tropical  climes  as  the  banana,  the 
bread-fruit  tree,  the  mango,   and   above  all  the  productive 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  43 

palm  species,  has  brought  vividly  before  the  mind  of  Christian 
travellers  and  missionaries  the  Tree  of  Life  of  the  Biblical 
Paradise-tradition.  Appellations  like  that  of  Musa paradisiaca 
for  the  banana  of  India,  ox  Arbol  del  Vida  for  the  Maurica 
palm  of  the  Orinoco  lands,  testify  to  this  ;  ^  in  like  manner 
the  enthusiastic  descriptions,  alike  of  single  specially  blessing- 
fraught  species  of  palms — such  as  the  date  palm,  the  cocoa 
palm,  the  palmyra  palm — as  of  the  order  of  palms  in  general, 
with  Avhich  we  meet  in  every  class  of  works  on  natural  science.^ 
Ordinarily,  too,  the  question  as  to  the  origin  of  the  palms  in 
these  lands  is  wont  to  be  regarded  as  of  surpassing  import- 
ance for  that  calculation  of  probability,  not  seldom  attempted 
in  modern  historic-anthropologic  and  archaeological  works, 
having  as  its  aim  the  determining  of  what  Avas  most  likely 
the  primal  home  or  place  of  creation  of  the  human  race.  To 
the  tropical  world,  or  at  least  to  those  regions  bordering  on  the 
tropics  which  produce,  in  addition  to  cereals,  also  palms,  and 
thus,  according  to  Grisebach's  expression,  "  combine  in  them- 
selves the  conditions  of  vegetation  of  the  temperate  and  the 
tropical  zones,"  are  these  Paradise-seekers  of  natural  science, 
as  a  rule,  not  less  favourably  disposed  than  the  majority  of 

'  '^ Arlh'l  del  Vida"  is  the  name  given  by  the  Jesuit  Gumilla,  in  his  Orinoco 
illitstrado,  to  the  glorious  Maurica  pahn  (Hartwig,  die  Tropeinoclt,  462). — On  the 
name  Musa  paradisiaca  or  Pomiiiii  paradisi,  as  Christian  appellations  of  the 
Banana  fig  (Malab.   Pala),   comp.    Oken,  A'aturgcscJi.,   III.    i,   517 — 520. 

^  See,  ?.«.,  N.  Bohner's  "Kosmos:  Bibel  derNatur,"  II.  249  fif.  "The  majestic 
forms  of  the  palms  proclaim  in  the  history  of  the  development  of  our  planet  the 
dawn  of  a  new  creative  day.  .  .  .  They  are  in  the  primeval  \\orld  the  precursors 
of  man.  They  .  .  .  stood  in  no  need  of  human  culture;  they  once  adorned  the 
paradise  of  mankind,  and,  like  a  faithful  nurse,  offered  to  the  new  created  man  the 
first  maternal  milk.  Our  undertone  of  longing  for  the  palms  is  perhaps  a  remnant 
of  love  inherited  from  our  first  parents,  who  were  nourished  Ijy  them,  as  the  ne\\'- 
born  child  at  the  breast  of  a  tender  mother.  In  the  paradisiac  regions  of  the  earth, 
where  the  rays  of  the  tropical  sun  call  forth  from  the  soil  a  luxurious  wealth  of 
ever-verdant  plants,  the  palms  lift  their  glorious  heads  far  above  the  topmost 
branch  of  the  primeval  forest,  lovely  images  of  grace  and  dignity,  a  precious 
adornment  of  the  footstool  of  God's  feet.  The  noble  simplicity  of  their  forms,  the 
symmetrical  organisation  of  their  structure,  the  majesty  of  their  growth,  the  beauty 
of  their  leafy  crown,  the  excellence  of  their  fruits,  give  to  this  family  of  palms  an 
exalted  stamp,  and  render  it  comprehensible  that  men  from  the  earliest  times  have 
chosen  these  favourite  trees  as  the  symbol  ol  peace,  of  love,  and  of  triumphant 
joy."     Comp.  also  what  was  said  by  Celsius,  Hicrobotanicon,  II.  p.  445  sqq. 


44  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

those  who  base  their  speculations,  on  this  subject  too,  mainly 
on  the  intimations  of  Holy  Scripture  alone;  for  the  latter 
are  by  their  researches  led  to  take  essentially  the  same  route 
as  the  former — namely,  to  the  more  southerly  lands  of  Asia, 
possibly  also  to  Africa,  not  however  to  Europe,  and  in 
Asia  not  so  far  northwards  as,  e.g.,  the  lands  watered  by  the 
Oxus.^ 

The  palms  may  serve  us  as  guides  in  determining  the 
character,  and  in  general  also  the  locality,  of  the  paradisiac 
primeval  abode  of  our  race.  It  must  not,  however,  be  for- 
gotten, in  connection  with  this  inquiry,  that  the  monuments 
of  the  history  of  religion  amongst  the  most  ancient  civilised 
nations,  do  not  specially  and  exclusively  copy  the  palm 
when  they  would  represent  the  Tree  of  Life,  the  emblem 
of  the  longing  for  Paradise  and  the  hope  of  immortality. 
As  was  above  shown,  the  figure  of  the  symbol  varies  in 
accordance  with  the  conventional  laws  which  have  become 
a  regulative  authority  for  the  priesthood  of  the  several  lands 
— in  India,  reflecting  rather  the  form  of  the  sacred  fig-tree ; 
in  Persia,  more  resembling  the  palm  ;  in  Babylonia,  offering 
a  fantastic  combination  of  cypress,  tamarisk,  and  date-palm  ; 
in  Egypt,  reminding  of  the  lotus  plant  or  the  persea  ;  among 
the  Celts,  in  form  approaching  an  oak  ; "-  among  the  Scan- 
dinavians, an  ash ;  among  the  American  tribes,  again,  other 
forest  trees ;  and  yet  nowhere  forming  simply  a  copy,  a 
mere  imitation,  from  these  types  in  the  living  world  of 
plants.  The  same  is  true  of  the  palm-like  figures  upon 
the  inner  walls  of  the  temple  of  Solomon  (i  Kings  vi.  29); 
these  symbols  expressing,  like  the  figures  of  the  cherubim, 
the  joyful  and  peaceful  character  of  the  sanctuary  of  Old 
Testament  worship,  of  which  the  form  may  have  been  closely 
allied  to  that  of  the  Trees  of  Life  upon  the  Babylonian 
or   Persian  monuments.^      These  are  all    ideal  conceptions, 

'  Compare  Appendix  IH.     Paradise,  according  to  earlier  and  more 

RECENT    OPINIONS. 

-  [The  DERWEN,  tree  par  excellence  of  the  Celts.  A  word  from  the  same  root 
as  the  Greek  words  dnls  and  dorii,  and  the  English  tree.'\ 

*  B'ihr,Der  saloiiionisc/ie  Tcnipcl,  S,  122  ff. ;  Keil,  Biblischc  Archiiologie,  S.  131  ff. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    BLESSING.  45 

symbols,  not  exact  copies  of  the  paradisiac  Tree  of  Life. 
And  just  as  little  as  they  present  the  figure  of  a  definite  tree 
in  the  full  lifelike  character  of  the  actual  tree,  just  so  little, 
on  the  other  hand,  comes  forth  in  full  distinctness  the  figure 
of  the  cross,  to  which  it  is  sought  to  reduce  its  form,  or  at 
least  the  skeleton  outline  of  its  branches.  Neither  as  regards 
their  signification,  referred  backwards  to  the  Tree  of  Life  in 
Paradise,  nor  as  referred  forwards  to  the  life-giving  sign  of 
redemption,  are  they  clear  and  distinct  types,  or  do  they  belie 
their  character  of  cnices  dissivuilatcc,  of  only  half-consciously 
or  almost  unconsciously  expressed  prophetic  signs.  They 
appear,  accordingly,  to  be  most  closely  related  to  those  pro- 
founder  myths  of  Classic  and  Teutonic  antiquity  in  which 
dwell,  as  it  were,  only  obscure  traces  of  a  Divine  primitive 
revelation  at  the  beginning  of  history,  and  likewise  only  an 
indistinct,  half-slumbering,  half-dreaming  consciousness  of  the 
range  of  its  prophetic  import,  as  pointing  to  the  new  and 
better  religion  of  the  future. 

This  one  thing  we  accordingly  recognise,  in  the  above- 
cited  interpretation  of  the  cross-symbols  of  Heathendom  in 
reference  to  Paradise,  as  just  and  applicable :  in  the  midst 
of  the  great  abundance  and  almost  confusing  multiplicity  of 
these  emblems,  there  exists  at  least  one,  certainly  one  of  those 
least  directly  and  clearly  expressing  the  form  of  the  cross,  to 
which  a  retrospective  reference  to  the  blissful  first  home  of 
mankind  cannot  be  denied.  Surrounded  by  a  considerable 
number  of  cruciform  figures,  which  serve  as  truly  cosmical 
emblems  for  the  symbolisation  of  now  this,  now  that  external 
phenomenon  of  nature  or  power  of  the  elements,  without 
however  presenting  any  nearer  relation  to  revelation,  not- 
withstanding their  more  or  less  striking  resemblance  to  the 
New  Testament  symbol  thereof,  the  Tree  of  Life  rises  lonely 
and  significantly  on  high,  as  a  profound  hieroglyph  of  actual 
import  of  revelation,  as  a  memorial  of  former  blessed  com- 
munion of  men  with  God  upon  the  soil  of  a  still  virgin-pure 
earthly  creation,  as  yet  not  desecrated  by  human  sin.  To  its 
full  extent,  indeed,  the  significance  of  this  symbol  for  the 
history  of  religion  and  for  apologetics  can   be  appreciated 


46  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

only  after  we  have  gained  a  position  whence  to  overlook 
those  institutions,  emblems,  and  customs  of  the  pre-Christian 
heathendom  which  typify  the  cross  of  the  Lord  as  a  symbol 
of  the  curse  (Gal.  iii.  13),  as  a  scene  of  the  judgment  upon  the 
sin  of  mankind.  For  only  then  shall  we  be  in  a  position  to 
enter  more  fully  into  the  question  whether,  beside  the  Tree  of 
Life,  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  has  not  also  cast  its  (long  after) 
baneful  shadow  upon  the  development  of  the  ancient  heathen 
life  of  civilisation.  We  thus  now  come  to  consider  the  pre- 
Christian  cross  in  the  second  place,  as  the  Symbol  of  the 
Curse. 


B.    JS   THE  SYMBOL    OF  THE   CURSE. 

A  complete  and  exhaustive  survey  of  the  wide-reaching 
field  of  the  various  applications,  as  the  instrument  of  torture 
and  punishment,  which  the  cross  has  found  in  pre-Christian 
antiquity,  cannot  be  made  our  aim.  To  this  subject — with 
which  the  epoch-making  work  of  Justus  Lipsius,  De  Cnice, 
was  already  mainly  occupied,  so  early  as  1595 — numerous  and 
thorough  treatises  have  been  devoted,  of  which  the  list  con- 
tained in  the  above-mentioned  programmes  of  Zestermann 
and  Degen  may  be  looked  upon  as  on  the  whole  complete.^ 
With  regard,  therefore,  to  the  details  of  this  part  of  our  subject, 
we  refer  the  reader,  once  for  all,  to  the  statements  of  these 
our  predecessors,  especially  the  two  last  named.  Supple- 
mentary additions  to  the  briefly  recapitulating  course  of  their 
investigations  will  be  necessary  in  the  main  only  on  a  single 
point — the  question,  namely,  to  what  extent  and  how  widely 
there  was,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  a  religious  signifi- 
cance attached  to  that  cross  which  was  employed  as  the 
instrument  of  punishment  or  of  torture  ;  so  that  thus  our 
connecting  of  the  same  with  those  crosses  expressing  the 
positive  conception  of  blessing  and  of  life  may  be  shown  to 
be  justified. 

An  unconditional  rejection  of  the  supposition  that  a  certain 
religious  significance  was  attached  to  the  punishment  of  the 

*  Compare  our  account  of  the  literature  gi-\  en  at  the  beginnings  of  this  work. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  4/ 

cross,  appears  at  once  inadmissible,  for  the  very  reason  that 
all  acts  of  imposing  or  executing  punishment,  among  all 
peoples,  rest  originally  upon  a  religious  basis.  A  clear  and 
definite  consciousness  of  the  fact  that  the  punishment  of 
human  wrong-doing  by  human  magistracy  rests  upon  Divine 
authorisation,  and  is  executed  by  virtue  of  Divine  will  or 
law — thus  in  God's  name — has  indeed  preserved  itself  in 
antiquity  only  in  that  nation  in  whose  bosom  lived  on  un- 
dimmed  the  remembrance  of  that  primevally  revealed  will 
of  God,  "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his 
blood  be  shed  "  (Gen.  ix.  6).  Here  in  patriarchal  times,  the 
father  of  the  family  (Gen.  xxxviii.  24),  later,  hov/ever,  under 
the  law,  the  nation,  the  totality  of  the  heads  of  families  in 
the  theocratic  community,  exercised  the  right  of  imposing 
and  inflicting  punishment,  and  in  particular  the  punishment 
of  death  (jus  vitae  necisque),  by  virtue  of  Divine  authority, 
or  in  God's  stead  (Exod.  xx.  12  ff.;  Levit.  xx.  2  ff.  ;  Deut. 
xiii.  6  ff. ;  xvii.  2  ff.)  Thus  here,  and  here  only,  could 
arise  that  knowledge  which  has  passed  over  to  the  New 
Testament  revelation,  and  through  this  has  become  the 
common  possession  of  Christian  men,  the  knowledge  ex- 
pressed by  Paul,  in  Rom.  xiii.  4,  that  the  magistracy  is 
"  God's  minister,  an  avenger  for  wrath  upon  him  that  doeth 
evil."  Nevertheless,  however  little  there  exists  beyond  the 
sphere  of  revelation,  any  clear  recognition  of  this  Divine 
origin  of  the  right  of  punishing,  yet  equally  indubitably  are 
there  to  be  found  even  here,  everywhere  upon  primitive 
heathen  soil,  certain  religious  references  in  the  principles 
cherished  and  carried  out  in  the  punishment  of  transgressions. 
However  the  right  of  punishment  may  be  theoretically  main- 
tained, whether  on  the  so-called  theory  of  retribution,  or  the 
theory  of  determent  or  repression,  or  the  theory  of  prevention, 
or  that  of  amendment,  etc.,  in  any  case,  the  whole  adminis- 
tration of  criminal  justice  has  to  be  regarded  as  a  special 
element  in  the  maintenance  of  public  right.  The  preservation 
of  the  life  of  the  State  against  violent  infraction  and  breach  of 
its  legal  ordinances,  forms  the  ground  and  aim  of  all  measures 


48  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  criminal  lavv.^  All  state  life,  however,  alike  among  civi- 
lised nations  as  among  the  ruder  children  of  nature,  has  been 
developed  upon  a  religious  basis,  and  is  seen  to  rest  in  its 
earliest  beginnings  upon  some  conceptions,  however  obscure 
and  defective,  of  a  Godhead  and  a  Divine  retribution  in  the 
world  beyond  the  grave,  as  well  as  to  be  provided  with  certain 
religious  customs — expiatory  and  sacrificial  rites,  consecra- 
tions, prayers,  etc. — maintained  as  the  common  possession 
of  all  members  of  a  nation  or  state.^'  There  are  no  peoples 
absolutely  without  a  religion  :  where  such  might  seem  to  be 
the  case,  this  cannot  possibly  be  regarded  as  having  been 
their  original  condition  ;  much  more  probable  is  the  suppo- 
sition that  religious  ideas  and  customs  earlier  present  among 
them  have  perished.^  So  far  as  the  nature  of  these  germs, 
however  imperfect  still,  of  a  community  of  life  in  religion 
or  worship  among  nations,  may  be  more  accurately  tested 
by  the  method  of  historical  examination,  these  include  in 
themselves,  in  a  manner  more  or  less  clearly  recognisable,  a 
definitely  religious  character  in  the  measures  aiming  at  the 
punishment  of  transgressors  and  offenders  against  the  com- 
mon weal.  Among  all  peoples — not  merely  the  people  of 
God  of  the  old  covenant  (Exod.  xxi.  13  ff.;  Num.  xxxv. ; 
Deut,  xix.) — the  exaction  of  blood  revenge  was  looked 
upon  as  something  sacred,  Divinely  sanctioned,  and  lying 
at  the  root  of  Divine  legislation.  Even  where  the  doc- 
trine of  the  unpermitted  character  of  avenging  self-help, 
as  a  presumptuous  invasion  of  the  Divine  prerogative  of 
vengeance  (Levit.  xix.  18),  was  a  thing  unknown,  and  the 
carrying   into    execution    of  the   blood-revenge  was   left   to 

'  Ulrici,  Grundzitgc  dcr prakt.  Philosophie,  I.  369ff.;  41 1  f. 

*  Comp.  the  beautiful  proofs  adduced  by  Max  Miiller  {Introduction  to  the  Science 
of  Religion,  London,  1873)  on  the  common  character  of  all  religions  in  their  earliest 
stage  of  development,  consisting  in  certain  more  general  fundamental  properties 
and  names  of  the  Godhead,  such  as  strength,  brightness,  purity,  greatness,  good- 
ness, etc.,  as  well  as  in  the  use  of  the  soteriological-ethical  notions  of  sacrifice, 
prayer,  altar,  sin,  virtue,  spirit,  body,  etc. — "the  outward  framework  of  the  in- 
cipient religions  of  antiquity." 

*  See  Appendix  IV.    Against  the  assertion  of  an  entire  irreligious- 

NESS   on   the   part   OF   CERTAIN   NATIONS. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  49 

the  passionate    zeal  of  the    members   of  the  family,  it  was 
nevertheless  sacred  conceptions  and  principles,  for  the  most 
part    mingled    with    all    kinds    of   religious   superstitions,   in 
accordance   with   which   the    said    actions   were    regulated.^ 
Partly  from  the  customs  of  blood-revenge,  partly  from  the 
State  control  devoted  to  them,  partly  from  the  other  measures 
designed  to  keep  watch  over  the  execution  of  private  revenge, 
or  against  yet  wilder  attacks  upon  the  Hfe,  property,  and  general 
security  of  the  individual — as  these  were  gradually  developed 
in  the  smaller   or   greater   extent  of  the  community — does 
criminal  justice  everywhere  appear  to  have  proceeded ;   so 
that  it  nowhere  denies  its  original  close  connection  and  inter- 
weaving with  religious  conceptions.^      In  this  way  is  to  be 
explained  the  ancient  Hellenic  view  and  treatment  of  every 
punishment   as  a  political   satisfaction  or  revenge  {rifjucopia), 
which  the  State  exacts  of  the  offender,  in  the  name  of  all,  for 
the  violated  majesty  of  the  law ;   for  the  accomplishment  of 
which  end — especially  when  it  is  a  case  of  the  expiation  of  the 
crime  of  bloodshed — sacrifices  ox  lustrations  are  also  called 
for,  for  the  appeasement  of  the  injured  gods.      Still  more 
clearly  does  this  religious  element  appear  in  the  penal  law 
of  the  ancient  Romans,  in  which  especially  the  rite  of  the 
solemn  proscription  {sacratio  capitis)  attaching  to  transgres- 
sion against  the  security  of  the  common  weal,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  trial  for  high  treason  {jndicitnn  perdiiellionis  aut  parri- 
cidii),  are  of  essentially  religious  import,  and  include  the  idea 
of  a  necessary  propitiation  of  the  offended  gods   by  means 
>f  sacrifice.     Yea,  all  death  punishment  among  the  Romans 
appears,  from  this  point  of  view,  to  be  a  propitiatory  sacri- 
fice; as  indeed  the  fundamental  significance  of  the  word  most 
generally  employed  in  the  judicial  language  of  the  Romans 
for  execution,  suppliciiiiii,  conveys  no  other  notion  than  that 
of  a  sacrifice  or  prayerful  offering  to  the  incensed  Divinity. 

'  Comp.  Oehler,  Theologie  des  Altcn  Testaments,  i.  376  iif.,'and  the  literature  there 
inentioned. 

-  Comp.  the  Lexicons,  %.\.  siij>plicitiin,  sacrare,  etc.  Also  the  article  "  Strafe, 
Strafrecht,"  etc.,  in  H.  Wagener's  Staats  mid  Gesellschafts  Lexicon,  xx.  S.  54  ff. 

4 


50  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

In  ancient  Germanic  law,  religious  ideas  of  this  kind  play- 
substantially  the  same  significant  part;  as  is  shown  by  the 
notions  of  proscription,  placing  under  ban  {Vetf chiming), 
wer-gild  (blood-fine),  the  frequent  use  of  ordeals,  the  severe 
criminal  justice  maintained  by  the  priests  in  time  of  war, 
etc.  Almost  all  other  nations  too,  barbarous  and  civilised, 
of  more  ancient  and  more  modern  time,  especially  eastern 
nations  of  such  comparatively  high  degree  of  civilisation 
as  the  Egyptians,  Persians,  Indians,  and  Chinese,  mani- 
fest in  various  ways  in  their  forms  of  justice  the  prevalence 
of  such  religious  conceptions.-^ 

After  what  has  been  said,  it  will  be  expected  that  the 
punishment  of  crucifixion  too,  which  belongs  to  the  oldest 
and  most  widely-spread  forms  of  death  punishment,  must 
originally  have  had  a  religious  significance ;  though  it  may 
be  that  in  the  course  of  time  this  significance  receded  so  far 
into  the  background,  and  was  so  greatly  lost  sight  of,  that  the 
said  mode  of  execution  might  perhaps  appear  to  bear  no  other 
than  a  merely  profane  character.  It  is  true  that — spite  of 
the  original  signification  of  the  Latin  siippliciuni  =  sacrifice, 
sacrificial  offering — we  cannot  suppose  that  the  crucifixion  of 
the  transgressor  was  in  general  regarded  and  treated  as  a 
sacrifice  properly  so  called.  To  this  mode  of  regarding  it, 
defended,  e.g.,  by  Stockbauer,  in  his  otherwise  very  merito- 
rious work  on  the  cross, ^  there  are  wanting  all  more  direct 
grounds  of  confirmation.  That  the  Phoenicians  and  Cartha- 
ginians sometimes  presented  to  the  sun-god  Baal,  who  stood 
with  arms  outstretched  after  the  form  of  a  cross  (?),  human 
victims  in  the  same  posture  of  the  cross,  whom  they  burnt  in 
his  honour,  is  a  mere  conjecture  unsupported  by  facts.  Just 
as  little  is  the  assertion  that  the  son  of  the  King  of  Moab 
(who,  according  to  2  Kings  iii.  27,  was  offered  as  a  burnt- 
offering  upon  the  wall  of  Kir-haraseth)  was  burnt  in  the 
form  of  a  cross,  even  distantly  favoured  by  the  sacred  text. 

*  This  is  seen  in  the  instructive  expositions  of  Saint  Rene  Taillandier,  '*  L'Histoire 
du  Droit  de  Punir,"  in  the  Revite  dcs  Deux  Mondes,  15th  Nov.,  1874. 
Ktinst'^ischichic  dss  Kreuxee,  S.  2  fif. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  5  I 

And  the  instance  related  by  Justin  (xviii.  7)  of  the  affixing  of 
Cartalo,  son  of  the  Carthaginian  general  Maleus,  upon  a  great 
cross  within  sight  of  the  besieged  city  of  Carthage,  bears, 
according  to  the  distinct  account  of  that  historian,  not  thie 
character  of  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  offered  to  Baal,  but  was 
simply  the  effect  of  an  outburst  of  anger  on  the  part  of  the 
enraged  general  on  account  of  the  supposed  disobedience  or 
attempted  defection  of  his  son.  The  hypothesis  of  a  sacri- 
fice, as  a  whole,  encounters  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  fact 
that  the  characteristic  act  of  burning — a  necessary  element 
of  all  sacrificial  acts — is  never  mentioned  in  connection  with 
crucifixions  or  hangings.  As  the  punishment  of  the  cross 
is  regularly  presented  as  an  independent  form  of  execution 
complete  in  itself,  never  as  a  mere  preliminary  to  other  forms 
of  the  death-punishment,  so  in  like  manner  does  it  nowhere 
appear  as  an  act  preparatory  to  a  subsequent  burning  of  the 
person  crucified  or  hanged.  On  the  contrary,  the  continuing 
to  hang  unhurncd  of  the  person  attached  (living  or  dead)  to 
the  cross  or  stake,  forms  the  true  characteristic  of  this  mode 
of  punishment,  the  object  of  which  seems  especially  to  have 
been  to  expose  the  body  of  the  executed  to  the  air  for  cor- 
ruption, and  to  the  birds  and  dogs  for  a  prey.^ 

In  order  to  form  a  correct  judgment  as  to  the  nature  and 
signification  of  this  terrible  custom,  it  is  indispensable  that 
we  keep  duly  before  our  mind  this  object  in  its  infliction — an 
object  appearing  everywhere,  and  with  the  greatest  clearness 
precisely  in  the  earliest  antiquity.  Crucifixion,  as  well  as  its 
collateral  forms  of  impalement,  hanging,  etc.,  is  essentially 
and  principally  a  disJionouring  exposure  of  the  executed  to 
become  a  prey  to  the  birds  of  the  air  and  the  beasts  of  the  field. 
It  is,  as  to  its  primary  significance,  A  HEAPING  OF  INSULT 
UPON  THE  EXECUTED,  A  BRANDING  WITH  INFAMY.  Among 
the  more  artificial  modes  of  carrying  into  execution  this 
primitive  custom  of  revenge  and  punishment — of  which  men- 

'  [111  this  sense  Josephus,  Aiitt.  vi.  14.  8,  speaks  of  the  Phihstines  as  crucifying 
the  bodies  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  by  the  walls  of  Bethshan — ra  hk  cw/xara  a.v(.<jTav- 


52  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

tion  is  made  almost  countless  times  even  in  Homer's  songs, 
and  of  which  the  simplest  execution  consisted  in  the  ven- 
geance inflicted  by  Creon  upon  Polynices,  of  leaving  the 
body  of  the  slain  to  remain  unburied  upon  the  open  field/ — 
crucifixion  is  one  of  those  most  frequently  occurring,  as  well 
as  one  of  the  oldest.  Yea,  as  crucifixion  in  the  widest  sense 
— i.e.,  as  hanging  upon  some  kind  of  stake  or  tree,  even 
though  it  be  not  shaped  like  a  cross'- — the  custom  is  scarcely 
less  old  indeed  than  that  simple  casting  of  the  body  upon 
the  open  field  ;  it  is,  moreover,  a  common  possession  of  all 
barbarous  and  warlike  nations,  of  which  no  one  to  this  day 
has  been  without  its  tree  of  ill  omen,  its  stake  of  infamy  and 
sufl"ering. 

Is  the  terrible  custom  one  of  Semitic  (Hamito-Semitic), 
especially  Phoenician-Carthaginian  origin  .-'  This  has  been 
frequently  asserted,  and,  so  far  as  there  is  implied  by  this 
crucifixion  nothing  more  than  the  affixing  to  a  T,  or  cross- 
shaped  piece  of  timber  or  scaffolding,  perhaps  not  without 
justice ;  for  no  absolutely  convincing  proof  can  be  adduced 
to  the  contrary,  and  the  Carthaginians  at  any  rate  made  a 
particularly  extensive  use  of  this  cross  in  the  narrower  sense 
of  the  term.  It  seems,  too,  as  we  shall  hereafter  have  to 
show  more  in  detail,  to  have  passed  from  them  to  the 
Romans.  But  if  we  take  the  idea  of  crucifixion  in  that 
wider  sense  denoted  by  the  etyma,  and  by  the  ordinary  usage 
of  the  classical  languages  with  regard  to  the  words  in 
question — speciall}^  with  regard  to  the  words  ci^iix,  criiciare, 
crudji£^c7r,  which  lie  immediately  at  the  root  of  our  "cross," 
"  crucify  "  —  according    to    which     "  hanging,"     "  impaling," 

'  The  Avell-known  Homeric  oltovolcriv  or  Oripecrcriv  ^Xup  Kai  Kvpfxayevicdai,  e.£:, 
II.  V.  488  ;  Od.  iii.  271  ;  v.  473  ;  cp.  II.  i.  5  ;  viii.  379  ;  xxii.  335  ;  xxiv.  41 1. 
Soph.,  A7i//^.  29,  205  ;  Aj.  817.  ^sch.,  &/A  1071  ;  Sitf/'l.  781,  etc.  The  same 
form  of  speech  occurs  also  frequently  in  the  Old  Test.  :  Comp.  Deut.  xxix.  26  ; 
Ezek.  xxix.  5  ;  as  well  us  Goliath's  threat  to  David,  I  Sam.  xvii.  44. 

^  For  an  illustration  of  such  cnicifixion  in  the  wider  sense,  accomj^anied  by  cir- 
cumstances of  unusual  atrocity,  as  practised  by  the  Turks,  see  the  engiaving  in  the 
Craphic  of  Sept.  16,  1876,  p.  265.  It  represents  three  Servian  soldiers  bound  to 
trees,  and  slowly  consumed  by  fires  kindled  at  their  feet.  The  engraving  is  from 
a  photograph  taken  on  the  spot. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  53 

"  transfixing  on  a  stake,"  and  similar  notions  were  also  com- 
prehended under  them/  then  the  assertion  of  an  exclusively 
Semitic  origin  to  this  custom  appears  to  be  altogether  un- 
supported, since  its  existence  in  this  more  general  form  can 
be  shown  at  least  just  as  early,  if  not  earlier,  among  non- 
Semitic  nations,  as  among  such  Semites  (more  accurately 
speaking,  Semitised  Hamites),  as  the  Phcenicians  and  Car- 
thaginians, or  even  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians.  The 
chaining  of  Prometheus  to  the  rocky  wall  of  the  Caucasus,  in 
order  that  the  eagle  of  Zeus  might  prey  upon  him,  has  been 
represented  as  an  instance  of  punishment  by  crucifixion  in 
the  most  distant  primeval  age,  and  certainly  not  without 
warrant.  For,  apart  from  the  fact  that  later  Greek  poets 
and  prose  writers  describe  the  suffering  imposed  upon  the 
hero  with  expressions  which  otherwise  indicate  "  crucifixion  " 
— iEschylus,  t^^.,  with  dvaaKoXoTri^eadai,  Lucian  with  dvaarav- 
povaOat — the  whole  act  of  punishment  or  revenge  bears  at  any 

'  Crux,  with  its  derivatives  and  composites,  is  most  likely  to  be  referred  back 
— with  the  assumption  of  the  middle  form  crun-c  or  cran-c,  to  the  cram,  which  in 
Sanscrit  signifies  to  be  tortured,  dolore  vexari ;  crux  itself  by  no  means  denotes 
exclusively  the  cross  in  the  narrower  sense,  but  appears  in  the  earlier  Latinity  as 
equivalent  to  patilnilitm,  gibbet,  or  stipes,  stake,  etc.  In  like  manner  cruciarc  with 
Plautus,  etc.,  still  by  no  means  denotes  specially  "crucify,"  but  only  "to 
torture,"'  "to  put  to  the  rack."  Similarly  the  Greek  aravpos,  of  whicir  the 
primitive  signification  was  that  of  "  pale  "  or  "  stake  "  [still  used  of  a  stake  in 
Jos.,  B.  y.  iii.  7.  19 :  <TTavpdl%  tdpaiois],  from  which  that  of  the  synonyms 
<rK6\o^  and  irai'is  (post)  does  not  essentially  differ,  and  of  which  the  derivatives 
(TTavpovv,  dvaaravpovv,  etc.,  signify  in  the  first  place  only  "torture,"  "torment." 
(Zestermann,  i.  13  f.,  15  f.)  [The  origin  of  the  word  cnix  (Welsh  crocs)  is  pro- 
bably to  be  sought  in  the  Celtic  root  CRO-G  =  suspendere  (?  Greek  KPEM  in 
Kpefiavvvfii),  a  root  which  exists  in  the  Cymric,  the  Gaelic,  the  Irish,  the  Manx,  and 
the  Armoric.  Cro£-i,  in  the  first  named  of  these  languages,  is  the  generic  expression 
for  "hang,"  (c-.^n,  Psalm  cxxxvii.  2),  and  croc/i  or  crogbrcii  is  the  Celtic  equivalent 
for  the  gallows.  The  name  of  this  instrument  of  execution  would  naturally  be 
learnt  by  the  Romans  in  their  earlier  intercourse  with  the  Gauls,  and — like  calmlhis 
(ceff'yl)— would  be  adopted  from  the  latter  before  fhe  use  of  the  Carthaginian 
instrument  was  introduced.  For  an  instance  of  the  early  use  of  cravpovv  in  the 
sense  of  hanging  (?)  on  a  gallows,  see  LXX.  of  Esther  vii.  9.  Instances,  on  the 
other  hand,  of  the  use  of  Kpe/xavvvvat,  or  suspendere  in  the  sense  of  crucifying,  _ 
are  common  :  Luke  xxiii.  39;  Lam.  v.  12,  as  comp.  with  Jer.  xxxix.  6  &.]  Fick 
{Vergl.  Worterb.  dcr  indogerman.  Sprachen,  3rd  ed.,  Getting.  1874,  i.  813), 
derives  crux  from  a  supposed  root  "  skark,"  signifying  "  to  fold  the  arms,"  etc., 
"  to  go  aslant." 


54  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

rate  the  same  meaning  as  does  the  affixing  of  an  ordinary, 
not  suprahuman-titanic  transgressor,  to  a  stake  or  gibbet. 
The  rock  of  Prometheus  deserves  indeed  so  to  be  called, 
even  as  it  has  been  termed  with  reference  to  the  deeper  mean- 
ing of  the  tradition  which  transfigures  it:  a  "gigantic  stone 
cross,  which  stands  forth  prophetically  above  the  enchant- 
ment of  Hellenic  cycles  of  tradition."  ^  While  this  myth  of 
old  Hellenic  time,  yea  in  its  germ  perhaps  even  of  a  pre- 
Hellenic  period,  affords  an  indirect  but  significant  voucher 
for  the  high  antiquity  of  the  practice  of  crucifixion  in  the 
wider  sense,  among  the  GREEKS  and  the  nations  of  Citerior 
Asia  bordering  upon  them  ;  and  the  common  epos  of  this 
Hellenic-Asiate  complex  of  nations,  the  Iliad,  equally  shows 
— in  the  account  of  the  fight  for  the  body  of  Patroclus — an 
acquaintance  with  the  closely  allied  custom  of  impaling;^ 
so  again  for  Egypt  the  presence  of  the  like  practice  of 
hanging  is  already  attested  in  the  Old  Testament  by  the 
history  of  Joseph.  For  the  death-punishment  which  Joseph, 
by  means  of  his  power  of  interpreting  dreams,  predicts  to  the 
chief  baker,  and  which  was  executed  on  him  within  three 
days,  consists  in  "  hanging  on  a  tree." "  This  custom  of 
hanging,  too,  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  genuinely  Egyptian,  as 
are  all  the  other  characteristic  traits  in  this  narrative — e.g., 
the  carrying  of  the  baskets  upon  the  head,  the  pressing  out 
of  the  grapes  into  the  king's  cup,  etc.  The  cross  in  the 
wider  sense,  as  a  stake  or  gibbet,  appears  accordingly  to  be 
known  and  employed  in  the  land  of  Ham,  so  early  as  the 
first  half  of  the  second  millennium  before  Christ,  previous  to 
the  immigration  of  the  Israelites, 

'  So  Rocholl,  Hannov.  I'ortriige  iilvr  den  zweilen  Artik,  dcs  Glauhens ;  1872, 
ii.  16.     Comp.  also  Luthardt,  Apologd.  Vortriige,  iii.  194. 

*  II.  xviii.  176,  the  messenger  of  the  gods.  Iris,  exhorts  Achilles  to  hasten  to 
the  conflict  for  the  body  of  his  fallen  friend  ;  for  "  powerfully  does  the  heart 
impel  Hector  '  to  set  upon  a  stake  '  the  head  of  Patroclus  " — K€(pa\riv  7r%at  dpa 
aK6\6ire(jcn.v. 

'  Gen.  xl.  19 — 23,  V?  "j?  nljn  (Vulg.,  suspendere  in  cnice  ;  Luth.,  an  den  Galgen 
henken).  Of  a  real  living  tree,  we  can  hardly  think.  Comp.  the  expositors  in 
loc.  Manetho  also  attests  the  practice  of  hanging  as  a  form  of  punishment  common 
among  the  Egyptians.  (^A/>ostelcs?n . ,  iii.  195  sqq. )  [Josephus  has  here  a.va<STavpodv^ 
Antt.  ii.  5.3.] 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  55 

To  these  traces  of  the  practice  of  crucifixion  in  the  wider 
sense  amongst  an  Indo-Germanic  and  a  Hamitic  people — 
traces  in  all  probability  reaching  back  almost  as  far  as  the  third 
chiliad  before  Christ — there  may  be  added  the  much  more 
numerous  and  direct  accounts  which  testify  to  the  imposition 
of  this  very  form  of  punishment  among  the  Semites  of  the 
south-western  district  of  Asia,  from  the  middle  of  the  second 
chiliad  before  Christ.     Among  the  Assyrians  it  must  have 
been   customary  specially  in  the    form  of  impalement — i.e., 
the  driving  of  a  sharpened  stake  through  the  cavity  of  the 
stomach  (about  the  region  of  the  heart),  and  the  placing  of 
this  beam  in  an  upright  position  with  the  body  of  the  trans- 
fixed upon  it ;  for  the  pictorial  representation  of  a  besieged 
city,  upon  one  of  the  monuments  of  Nineveh,  displays  three 
such  naked  bodies  impaled  upon  stakes,  in  such  fiishion  that 
the  head  and  arms  hang  down  upon   one  side  of  the  stake, 
the  lower  part  of  the  body  and  legs  on  the  other.^     To  what 
extent  this  representation  testifies  to  a  very  ancient  custom, 
or  whether  only  to  a  custom  belonging  to  a  later  epoch  of 
the    Babylonian-Assyrian  history,  may   perhaps  remain  un- 
determined.    With  regard  to  the  neighbouring  family  of  the 
Euphrates  peoples  to  the  west,  namely,  the  Hebre\YS,  it  is 
shown  by  most  distinct  accounts  in  the  Pentateuch  and  the 
prophetic  books  of  sacred  history  that  the  custom,  closely 
akin,  of  hanging  the  bodies  of  those  executed,  or  of  foes  who 
were  slain,  prevailed  among  them   as  early  as  the  age   of 
Moses  and  Joshua.    "  Take  all  the  heads  (chiefs)  of  the  people 
and  hang  them  up   before  the  Lord  against  the  sun,"  is  the 
command  of  Jehovah  to  Moses,  when  he  was  incensed  at  the 
apostacy  of  Israel    to   the   impure  worship   of   Baal    Peor.'- 
The  execution  of  this  sentence  consisted,  according  to^what 
follows,  in  the  impure  offenders  being  "  slain  " — i.e.,  put  to 
death  with   the  sword,    or,    as    in   the  case  of  that    couple 

>  .S"6V  Bonomi,  Ninrueh  audits  Palaces,  p.  276,  Fig.  162.  Also  Layard,  Nineveh 
and  its  Remains,  ii.  374,  and  engraving  on  p.  369.  For  crucifixion  (or  impale- 
ment?) as  an  ancient  Assyrian  custom,  comp.  further  Diodorus,  ii.  l  ;  with  regard 
to  the  later  Babylonians,  also  Herodotus,  iii.  159. 

2  Numbers  xxv.  4. 


$6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

transfixed  by  Phinehas,  with  the  spear — and  then  "hanged 
before  the  sun,"  i.e.,  hung  up, upon  a  tree  or  stake.     In  the 
same  manner  must  we  suppose  the  execution  of  the  King  of 
Ai  to  have  taken  place,  since  Joshua  "hanged  him  on  a  tree 
until  eventide,"  as  likewise  that  of  the  five^Canaanitish  kings 
captured  in  the  cave  at  Makkedah,  who,  after  their  necks  had 
been  trodden  under  the  feet  of  the  captains,  were  slain  and 
hanged  on  five  trees  until  the  evening.^     The  leaving  sus- 
pended only  until  the  evening,  when  accordingly  the  bodies 
were  to  be  taken  down  and  buried,  "  that  the  land  be  not 
defiled,"  here  took  place  in  accordance  with  the  precept  of 
Deuteronomy  (Deut.  xxi.  22  f )     How,  in  presence  of  these 
such  distinct  passages  of  the  law  and  of  the  oldest  book  of 
history,  any  could  deny  the  existence  among  the  Israelities 
of  punishment  by  the  cross,^  is  comprehensible  only  when  the 
punishment  of  the  cross  is  recognised  in  the  narrower  sense 
exclusively,  and  the  hanging  upon  trees,  stakes,  and  such-like 
forms  are  entirely  excepted  from  the  notion  of  crucifixion — 
a  position  which,  according  to  our  previous  exposition,  appears 
to  be  alike  grammatically  and  historically  untenable.     The 
form  of  the  tree  of  shame  here  just  as  little  affects  the  essence 
of  the  matter,  as  does  tlie  question  whether  the  person  to  be 
subjected  to  this  outrage  was  hanged  upon  it  as  a  corpse  or 
while  still  living.     What  was  at  first  indeed  executed  only  on 
those  already  dead,  may  in  the  course  of  time,  and  under  the 
corrupting  influence  of  the  barbarous  manners  of  surround- 
ing nations,  also  have  been  extended  to  the  living.     Even  in 
the  case  of  the  "  hanging  up  before  the  Lord  "  of  seven  men 
of  the  house   of  Saul  (2    Sam.   xxi.   6),   perpetrated    by  the 
Gibeonites,  under  David  and  with  David's  sanction,  at  Gibeah 

'  Joshua  viii.  29  ;  x.  24 — 27.  The  Heb.  verb  employed  in  these  t^\o  passages 
is  rVFi,  "to  hang  up;"  whereas  Num.  xxv.  4,  we  have  rpirr  (from  i-p>,  to  dis- 
locate) "  to  disjoint,"  "stretchout" — the  same  expression  as  is  used  in  2  Sam. 
xxi.  6,  perhaps  also  with  a  somewhat  similar  meaning,  that  of  a  crucifixion  pro- 
perly so  called.  See  below.  [Fiirst  gives  as  the  radical  meaning  of  this  verb, 
"  to  fix  firmly ; "  so  "to  fasten  (to  a  stake),"   "  to  impale."] 

-  So  Causobon  ;  and,  after  him,  Bormitius,  Winer,  art.  "  Kreuzigung,"  Zester- 
mann,  i.  10  f.  Otherwise  already  Chaufepie,  and,  among  the  more  modern  exegetes, 
Bertheau  and  Keil. 


AS    THE    SYMBO[,    OF    THE    CURSE.  57 

of  Saul/  the  Biblical  expression  is  such  that  a  hanging  of 
men  yet  living — and  indeed  as  the  verb  employed  in  the 
original,  "to  stretch  out,"  seems  to  imply,  stretched  out  as 
upon  a  cross,  thus  perhaps  upon  actual  crosses — appears 
to  be  involved  in  it.^  Inasmuch  as  the  non-Israelitish  but 
Amorite  origin  of  the  Gibeonites  is  expressly  declared  at 
the  beginning  of  this  narrative  (xxi.  2),  and  inasmuch  as, 
in  the  carrying  into  execution  of  this  cruel  act,  they  did 
not  hold  themselves  bound  to  the  observance  of  that 
Deuteronomical  precept  which  requires  the  taking  down 
of  the  hanged  on  the  evening  of  the  day,  but  suffered  them 
to  hang  there  many  days  and  nights — so  that  Rizpah,  the 
mother  of  two  of  these  Saulites,  was  moved  to  become  a 
faithful  guardian  to  them  against  the  wild  beasts  of  the  field 
and  the  birds  of  the  air  (ver.  10) — the  whole  proceeding 
appears,  we  confess,  as  only  partially  and  indirectly  an  act  of 
judicial  punishment  among  the  Hebrews  :  the  theocratic  king 
concurs  in  this  action,  not  as  properly  speaking  enjoining  it, 
but  as  permitting,  as  conceding  to  a  Canaanitish  vassal-people 
the  observance  of  their  own  custom."  But  may  not  some- 
thing of  a  similar  kind  have  been  repeated  within  the  history 
of  Israel  itself,  even  without  the  co-operation  of  such  partially 
foreign  influences  .-'  May  not,  especially  in  time  of  war,  when 
even  much  more  terrible  punishments  were  often  imposed,^ 
also  the  nailing  of  living  beings  to  trees,  stakes,  or  scaffolds 
— in  imitation  of  the  practice  of  the  neighbouring  peoples,  or 
in  revenge  for  the  enormities   they  had  committed — some- 

'  2  Sara.  xxi.  5 — 9. 

^  Comp.  note  '  on  the  preceding  page.  The  LXX.  excellently  translate  l"prt.  in 
2  Sam.  xxi.  6,  9.  by  i'^rfKia^av ;  in  Num.  xxv.  4,  on  the  other  hand,  less  accurately 
by  Trapadeiy/jLari^eLU.  The  Vulgate  has.  Num.  xxv.  4,  siispcndere :  on  the  other 
hand,  2  Sam.  xxi.  6,  9,  cnicifigere.  (As  it  has  also,  in  connection  with  Pharaoh's 
baker,  Gen.  xl.  ig,  once  "  suspendere  in  cnice.") 

^  Compare  the  instructive  observations  of  Keil  in  loc,  in  the  second  edition  of 
his  Bibl.  Comnt.  on  tJie  Books  of  Samuel. 

*  Think  of  the  tearing  with  saws  and  teethed  sledges,  and  burning  in  brick- 
kilns, inflicted  by  David  upon  the  Ammonites,  2  Sam.  xii.  31  ;  i  Chron.  xx.  3  ;  as 
also  of  the  hurling  down  of  10,000  Edomites  from  the  rock  by  the  commnud  of 
Amaziah,  2  Chron.  xxv.  12. 


58  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

times  have  taken  place  ?  The  account  of  the  actual  execu- 
tion of  a  sentence  of  this  kind  is  first  expressly  given  us  with 
regard  to  the  Maccabsean  king  Alexander  I.,  Jannseus  (died 
B.C.  79),  who  once,  after  the  taking  of  the  rebellious  city  of 
Bethome,  caused  no  fewer  than  800  of  the  Jews  there  captured 
to  be  nailed  to  the  cross,  and  for  the  augmentation  of  the 
punishment  caused  the  wives  and  children  of  the  crucified  to 
be  cut  down  before  their  eyes.^  The  supposition  that  similar 
enormities,  though  perhaps  in  less  inhuman  form,  have  been 
perpetrated  from  time  to  time  among  the  Jews,  cannot  indeed 
be  opposed  by  any  very  valid  arguments  ;  since  the  law  of 
Deut.  xxi.  23  most  unequivocally  testifies  to  the  custom  of 
hanging  transgressors  upon  a  tree  of  the  curse  as  a  con- 
stituent element  in  their  criminal  practice  from  the  earliest 
time ;  and  since  the  neighbouring  race  of  Phcenicians, 
closely  related  to  them  by  the  community  of  language,  cer- 
tainly practised  this  custom  from  the  beginning  of  the  last 
chiliad  before  Christ — if  not  even  earlier — as  is  shown  by 
the  previously  observed  frequency  of  its  occurrence  among 
their  colonists  the  CartJiaginians.  As  concerns  these  last, 
the  ferocity  with  which  they  were  wont  to  inflict  this  punish- 
ment— not  rarely  aggravated  by  the  addition  of  exquisite 
tortures — as  well  upon  prisoners  of  war  (as,  e.g.,  it  is 
alleged,  upon  Regulus  in  the  first  Punic  war)  as  upon 
domestic  slaves,  and  above  all  upon  many  of  their  generals, 
has  become  proverbial. ■  It  is  a  Punic  slave  whom  Plautus 
represents  as  replying  to  one  who  was  threatening  him  with 
crucifixion,  "  Threaten  me  not !  I  know  the  cross  will  be  my 
grave  ;  for  there  have  all  my  ancestors  been  buried — father, 


'  Josephus,  Antiq.,  xiii.  14.  2.  That  the  act  of  Alexander  is  here  cliaracterised 
as  iravTuv  <sni.ina.rov  ipyov,  and  as  a  St'/cTj  virep  &udpu3Trov,  does  not  justify  the  con- 
clusion Winer  {itt  supra)  -would  deduce  from  it,  in  favour  of  his  theory  of  the 
non-existence  of  the  punishment  of  crucifixion  in  general  among  the  Jews.  Not 
in  the  crucifying  of  the  800  in  itself,  but  in  the  slaying  of  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren before  their  eyes,  does  the  historian  see  something  unparalleled  and  before 
unheard-of. 

-  Cp.  Justin,  xviii.  7  (see  above) ;  Valerius  Maximus,  ii.  7 ;  Polyb.,  i.  24.  6  ; 
Livy,  xvii.  Epit.     As  regards  Regulus  in  particular,  Silius  Ital.,  ii.  343. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  59 

grandfather,  great-grandfather,  and  great-great-grandfather."  ^ 
As  this  saying,  so  do  the  other  express  accounts  of  the  in- 
fliction of  crucifixion  among  the  Carthaginians,  not  extend 
back  beyond  the  commencement  of  the  third  century  before 
Christ.  What  pleads  for  a  much  higher  antiquity  of  this 
usage  is  the  fact  of  its  exceeding  frequency  and  popularity, 
as  well  as  the  significant  fact  that  the  North-African  neigh- 
bouring people  of  the  Barc^ANS  in  Cyrenaica,  already — 
according  to  a  statement  of  Herodotus — knew  and  practised 
the  custom  of  impalement  or  crucifixion  (avaaKoXoirL^etv)  so 
early  as  the  sixth  century  before  Christ.- 

For  the  extraordinarily  widespread,  yea  almost  unlimited 
prevalence  of  the  punishment  of  the  cross  in  the  widest  sense, 
among  the  better  known  pre-Christian  peoples,  evidence  is 
afforded,  moreover,  by  the  to  a  large  extent  well-supported 
ancient  accounts  which  attest  it.  For  the  Indians  there  are 
those  referring  to  a  time  so  early  as  that  of  the  conquests  ot 
Semiramis,  who — in  Diodorus,  ii.  18 — scornfully  threatens  the 
Indian  king  Stabrobates  with  a  nailing  to  the  cross ;  for  the 
Turanian  people  of  the  SCVTHIANS,  to  the  north  of  Media, 
those  referring  to  a  period  six  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
at  the  time  of  the  Median  king  Cyaxares :  as  concerns 
the  Medes  and  Persians,  there  are  those  vouching  for  its 
existence  among  them  under  the  kings  of  the  line  of  the 
Achsemenides,  in  the  sixth  and  fifth  centuries ;  for  the  people 
of  Magna  Gr^CIA,  its  presence  is  attested  in  Sicily  at  the 
time  of  the  Elder  Dionysius  of  Syracuse,  about  the  year 
B.C.  400,  and  often  after  that  time ;  for  the  MACEDONIANS, 
under  Alexander  the  Great  and  his  successors ;  even  for  the 
ancient  BRITONS  and  the  Frieslanders,  whose  custom, 
attested  by  Tacitus,  for  the  first  century  of  our  sera,  of  hanging 
their  captives  upon  crosses  or  gibbets,  unquestionably  points 

'  Mi7a  Glonosiis,  ii.  4.  19: 

Noll  minitari :  scio  crucem  futuram  nilhl  sepulcrum. 
Ibi  mei  majores  sunt  siti,  pater,  avos,  proavos,  abavos. 
-  Herod.,  iv.  202  :  Pheretime,  queen  of  Barce,  causes  the  murderers  of  her  son 
Arcesilaus,  whom  the  victorious  Persians  had  dehvered  up  to  her,    "to  be  impaled 
around  the  'wall,"  dueaKoMTriae  kukXcp  tov  reixeos. 


•60  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

back  to  an  existence  thereof  in  earlier  ages.^  As  concerns 
the  Romans,  crucifixions  in  the  wider  sense  present  them- 
selves even  in  the  history  of  their  kings.  The  account  in 
Livy,  given  in  connection  with  the  history  of  the  Horatii,  of 
a  hanging  upon  a  "  tree  of  ill  omen,"  no  doubt  refers  to  one 
which  was  effected  by  means  of  a  cord,  not  by  nailing,  but 
nevertheless  implies  clearly  enough  an  execution  bearing 
the  character  of  a  punishment  on  the  gallows, — a  shameful 
death  by  hanging.  And  as  it  reminds  of  the  "  hanging  upon 
the  tree  "  of  the  Old  Testament,  so  also  does  the  proceeding 
of  Tarquinius  Priscus,  of  which  Pliny  bears  testimony,  who 
in  the  construction  of  the  Cloaca  Maxima  caused  the  bodies 
of  those  who  had  committed  suicide  in  order  to  escape  the 
labour  imposed  upon  them,  to  be  attached  to  the  cross  as  a 
warning  to  the  other  labourers,"  in  some  degree  resemble  the 
above-mentioned  ancient  Hebrew  custom.  In  its  later  pre- 
vailing form,  as  an  execution  carried  out  mainly  upon  slaves 
and  of  those  guilty  of  the  graver  offences — such  as  mutinous 
soldiers,  subjects  taken  in  revolt,  highway  robbers,  etc.,  but 
never  upon  Roman  citizens^ — crucifixion  amongst  the  Romans 
declares  with  sufficient  clearness  its  Punic  origin,  as  a  custom 

'  ^Mention  is  made  of  crucifixion,  or  similar  forms  of  execution,  .imong  the 
Indians,  Diod.,  ii,  l8  ;  among  tlie  Scythians,  Justin,  ii,  5  ;  among  the  Afcdcs, 
Herod.,  i,  128;  among  the  Persians,  Herod.,  iii.  125;  iv.  43;  vii,  33,  194; 
ix,  78,  120;  aiso  Ctesicc  excerpt.,  5;  Thucyd,,  i,  no;  Cic.,  de  Finib.,  v,  30  ;  cp,, 
Ezra  vi.  Jl  ;  Esther  vii.  9  f.  ;  among  the  Syracusans  imder  Dionysius  I.,  Diodoras, 
''i^-  53'  S  ;  among  the  Macedonians  under  Alex,  the  Gr.,  Curtius  R.,  iv.  4.  17 
(execution  of  2,000  Tyrians,  after  the  taking  of  this  city,  by  nailing  to  the  cross, 
Curt.,  vii.  II.  28  ;  ix,  8.  16)  ;  among  the  Macedonian  troops  under  the  Ptolemies 
in  Egypt.,  Justin,  xxx.  2  ;  among  the  Fricslandeis  in  the  time  of  Tiberius,  Tacit., 
Ann.,  iv.  72  ;  among  the  Britons  in  the  time  of  Nero,  a.d,  61,  Tacit.,  Ann., 
xiv.  33,     [So  Josephus  uses  aravpos  and  dvacrTavpovv,  Antt.  xi.  6,  lO,  11.] 

^  Liv.,  i,  26.  Caput  obnubito,  arbori  infelici  reste  (_7vit/i  a  cord)  suspendito ; 
cp,  Senec,  Ep.  ci,,  illud  infelix  lignum. — Pliny,  H.  N.,  36.  15.  Novum  reme- 
dium  invenit  ille  rex  {Tarq.  Prise),  ut  omnium  ita  defunctorum  figeret  crucibus 
corpora  spectanda  civibus  simul  et  feris  volucribusque  laceranda.  Comp.  what 
has  been  said  above  (p.  55  f.)  as  to  the  crucifixion  of  dead  bodies  among  Jews  and 
Greeks. 

^  Cicero,  Verr.  55,  66;  Horace,  Senn.,  i.  3,  82  ;  Juvenal,  vi,  219  ;  Josephus, 
Bell.Jud.,  v.  17.  I  ;  Anit.,  xvii.  lo.  ro  ;  xx.  6.  2 ;  Appulejus,  Metam.,  iii.  p.  64,  ed. 
Bipont.  ;  Capitolius, /"cv//;/.,  8;  Lampridius,  Alex.  Sever.,  23;  etc. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  6 1 

which  had  extended  to  them  by  virtue  of  the  commercial 
relations  with  Carthage  during  the  first  ages  of  the  republic. 
And  it  is  precisely  this  Roman  custom  of  crucifixion,  adopted 
from  the  Carthaginians,  which  first  brings  out  with  great  dis- 
tinctness the  use  of  the  four-armed  cross,  properly  so  called,  _L 
to  which  we  thus  owe  the  idea  and  name  of  that  which 
we  now  term  crucifixion  in  the  narrower  sense. 

A  considerable  diversity  exists  in  the  forms  and  mode 
of  employing  those  iriiplements  of  torture  which  are  com- 
prehended under  the  general  appellation  of  crosses  or 
instruments  of  crucifixion.  The  earliest  and  simplest  form 
was  without  doubt  that  merely  of  an  erect  STAKE,  to  which 
offenders  were  nailed  or  hanged.  To  this  stake — the  place 
of  which  might  also  often  be  occupied  by  the  stem  of  a  tree ; 
and  which  was  itself  briefly  designated  as  the  "tree"^ — the 
person  to  be  hanged  was  attached,  either  after  previous 
execution  or  while  yet  living,  usually  in  such  wise  that  alike 
the  feet  and  the  arms  (folded  together  above  the  head, 
and  thus  representing  with  the  upright  stake  the  form 
of  a  <&)  were  fastened — it  is  doubtful  as  regards  the  latter 
whether  through  the  hands — to  the  cross,  each  by  one 
large  nail.  The  appellations  current  in  the  classical  lan- 
guages for  this  primitive  form  of  the  cross — designated  by 
Lipsius  the  crux  simplex — are,  in  Greek,  aTavpo<i '  or  cravi^y 
post,  as  also  (TKoXoylr, pale  or  stake;  in  Latin,  cntx  or  stipes, 
which  latter  'expression  may  denote  alike  the  stem  of  a  living- 
tree,  as  also  a  stake,  stock,  or  log  prepared  from  it.  This 
mode  of  crucifixion  was  originally  customary  among  all 
nations.  Among  those  belonging  to  the  historic  period, 
that  of  the  Persians,  especially,  seems  to  have  frequently 
practised  it ;  for  Herodotus,  in  his  accounts  of  Persian 
executions,  occasionally  makes  use  of  such  expressions  as 
"  nail  to  a  plank  "  (aavk)  or  "  hang."  ^ 

'  Liv.,  i.  26  (eee  note  -  on  preceding  page)  ;  Deut.  xxi.  22  (Gal.  iii.  13)  ;  Josh. 
viii.  39  ;  X.  24,  27  ;  etc. 

-  From  the  root  era f  =  o-ra,  thus  related  to 'iaTrj/xi ;  comp.  Zestermann,  i.  13, 
n.  21. 

■'  So  vii.  33  :  'ApKTat'KTriv  dvSpa  llepayji'  Xa^bvns  ^wovra  irpbs  aavioa  TrpoabuKaa- 


62  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Beside  the  post  for  hanging,  there  stands,  as  of  not  much 
later  date  in  point  of  origin,  but — as  applied  to  the  living — 
certainly  a  more  terrible  and  violent  means  of  crucifixion, 
the  POINTED  STAKE  for  transfixing  the  criminal,  the  instru- 
ment of  impalement  or  transpiercing.  It  is  that  implement 
depicted  upon  the  monuments  of  Nineveh,  and  thus  existing 
among  the  ancient  Assyrians,  and  employed  by  them  and 
the  neighbouring  peoples,  more  especially  in  wars,  for  the 
impaling  of  fallen  foes,  in  some  cases  also  of  living  prisoners  ; 
and  not  less  that  stake  of  which  the  Iliad  makes  mention,  in 
its  account  of  the  battle  for  possession  of  the  fallen  Patroclus, 
as  being  in  ordinary  use  on  the  Trojan  side,  for  fixing  the 
head  thereupon.  To  the  Greek  expression  o-k6\o'>^,  originally 
beyond  doubt  denoting  specially  this  instrument,  corresponds 
the  Latin  acuta  crux  ("pointed  cross,"  "pointed  stake")  in 
SenecaJ  The  refined  cruelty  of  impaling  living  persons,  as 
this  writer  knew  it,  and  as  it  is  still  described  by  Hesychius 
in  the  fourth  century,-  as  consisting  in  the  transfixing  of  the 
body  along  the  whole  length  of  the  spine,  "  as  in  the  case  of 
fish  roasted  upon  spits,"  is  practised  among  many  barbarian 
peoples  even  to  the  present  day.  The  Khan  of  Khiva  is  said 
to  have  employed  this  terrible  mode  of  punishment  especially 
against  Christians  and  Shi'ahs,  using  indeed  a  carriage  for 
the  impelling  of  the  pointed  stake  into  the  body,  as  yet  lying 
in  a  horizontal  position  firmly  bound  upon  another  carriage, 
as  well  as  cords  fastened  to  the  legs  of  those  impaled,  in 
order  to  draw  down  the  body  more  deeply  after  the  erection 
of  the  stake,  and  thus  to  complete  the  work  of  impalement. 
Among  the  Mohammedan  Negro  races  of  the  Johba,  at  Ilori, 

c6Xe\)<jav.  Comp.  ix.  I20.  With  justice  does  Zestermanii  maintain  that  these 
o-actSes  of  the  Persians  are  siptare  posts,  or  thick  planks ;  cp.  Passow  and 
Pape,  s.v. 

'  Ep.  ci.  Inde  illud  Mcecenatis  turpissimum  votum.  quo  et  debilitatem  non 
recusat  et — novissime  acittam  cnuem,  dummodo  inter  hrec  mala  spiritus  pro- 
rogetur. 

"  Hesych.  :  cTKoKoxpiu  (is  OTrruaiv  ....  o^wovres  ^v\ov  Sea  pdxews  Kat  toO  vwtov, 
KadoLTrep  T0V3  diTTWixevovs  Ix^vs  iwl  o^eXitXKWv.  Comp.  Seneca,  Consol.  ad  Alan. , 
c.  20  :  alii  per  obsccena  stipitem  egerunt,  etc.  (Through  the  back,  and  along  the 
spine.) 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  63 

in  West  Africa,  Gerhard  Rohlfs  in  1867  came  upon  a  number 
of  unfortunate  creatures  thus  impaled,  suspended  upon  their 
lance-like  stakes  high  in  the  air.^ 

The  transition  from  the  stake  and  the  pointed  stake,  as  the 
two  main  forms  of  the  cnix  simplex,  to  the  cross  properly  so 
called,  the  COMPOSITE  CROSS,  crux  coinpacta  of  Lipsius,  is 
formed  especially  by  the  instrument  of  death  of  the  nature 
of  a  pillory,  employed  by  the  Romans  for  the  punishment  of 
slaves,  the  cross-beam,  or  patibnlum,  and  again  by  the  fork, 
furca.  The  former,  corresponding  to  the  radical  signification 
of  patibulum  =  cross-bar  of  a  gate,  was  a  simple,  beam-like, 
thick  piece  of  wood,  of  oblong  form,  which  was  placed  across 
the  upper  part  of  the  victim's  breast,  and  to  the  ends  of 
which  his  arms — as  widely  as  possible  extended — were  firmly 
attached.  The  man  thus  bound  was  then  driven  through  the 
streets  of  the  town,  followed  by  the  hangman,  who  scourged 
his  back,  to  the  place  of  execution.  There  he  was  drawn  up 
by  means  of  cords,  which  were  fastened  to  the  cross-beam, 
to  an  upright  stake,  in  order  thus  to  be  devoted  to  a 
lingering  death.  So  also  the  fiircifa'i,  or  bearers  of  the 
"  fork  " — a  combination  of  two  cross-beams  (resembling  the 

rest  for  a  carriage  shaft),  in  the  form     "X    ,  which  must  be 

borne  upon  the  back,  the  hands  being  all  the  while  firmly 
bound  to  the  two  lower  ends  of  the  beams,  thus  present- 
ing a  complicated  variation  from  the  straight  cross-beam 
— were  followed  by  the  executioner,  by  whom  they  were 
scourged,  not  however  to  be  finally  hanged  upon  the  cross, 
but  to  sink  down  exhausted  by  the  heavy  and  torturing 
burden,  and   to  yield  up  the  spirit  under  the  blows  of  the 

His  account  is  published  in  the  "  Daheim,"  1873,  No.  39.  Also  in  his  book  of 
travels,  "  Quer  durch  Afrika,"  1874,  ii.  258.  Comp.  also  Oberliinder,  Wcstafrika 
(Leipzig,  1874),  S.  248  f.  [A  similar  case  of  impalement  was  witnessed  in 
Bosnia  during  the  summer  of  1876,  inter  alios,  by  Canon  Liddon  and  Rev.  I\L 
MaccoU.  Perfectly  well-authenticated  instances  of  impalement  by  the  Turks  in 
Servia  also  occurred  during  the  same  period.  See,  e.g.,  Canon  Liddon's  letter 
to  Daily  N'eios  of  January  12,  1877;  confirmed  by  letter  of  Heinrich  Renner  in 
Daily  A'cius  of  February  6.  For  more  recent  cases  see  the  letter  of  Mr.  Gladstone, 
ibid..  May  22.] 


64  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

scourger.^  The  names  of  these  two  Roman  instruments 
of  torture,  although  without  doubt  originally  bearing  a 
different  signification,  came  gradually  to  be  looked  upon 
as  synonyms  with  crux.  Paiibulnni  especially  became 
quite  the  ordinary  synonym  for  cni-x,  with  which,  from 
the  time  of  Cicero  and  Caesar,  it  became  almost  an  exact 
equivalent — an  expression  which  in  this  later  usage  corre- 
sponds pretty  nearly  to  our  "  Gallows."  ^  This  manifestly 
in  consequence  of  the  fact  that  the  cross-beam  was  now 
fastened  to  the  upright  stake,  the  beam  to  which  it  was 
formerly  raised,  previously  to  the  commencement  of  the 
execution,  and  the  cross  thus  composed  was  laid  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  condemned,  that  he  might  bear  it  to  the 
place  of  execution. 

The  ficrca,  too,  may  in  some  cases,  after  having  been 
borne  to  the  place  of  execution,  have  been  erected  there, 
as  a  cross  or  gibbet,  and  thus  have  been  made  use  of  for 
branding  with  ignominy  the  death  of  the  sufferer,  as  well 
as  for  the  public  exposure  of  his  body.  Definite  historic 
accounts,  however,  of  such  employment  of  this  instrument 
of  torture  can  be  adduced  neither  from  the  ancient  Roman 
authors  nor  from  Christian  writers  ;  and  thus  all  that  has 
been  advanced  by  later  writers  from  the  time  of  J.  Lipsius, 
and  illustrated  by  pictorial  representations,  concerning  exe- 
cution on  crosses  of  a  furca-like  form,  rests  entirely  upon  an 

uncertain  basis.     Neither  for  the  form    /\      nor  for  that  of 

a  Greek  Y — which  latter,  moreover,  many  Christian  artists 
have  made  the  basis  of  their  representation  of  the  crucified 
Saviour — do  the  annals  of  Roman  criminal  justice,  or  the 

'See  the  lucid  and  convincing  statements  in  Zestermann,  i.  18-23,  ^7  which  the, 
in  many  cases  indistinct  and  baseless,  explanations  of  Xh^patibidum  and  they9/;r«  on 
the  part  of  earlier  writers  find  their  thorough  refutation — particularly  the  arbitrary 
identification  of  the  two  in  Lipsius,  De  Cntce,  iii.  3,  and  in  Forcellini,  Lexicon, 
s.vv.,  with  whom,  among  more  recent  authors,  agrees  Keim,  Gesck.  Jesu  v. 
A^azara,  iii.  397. 

^  Tacitus,  e.g.,  employs  indifferently  cmci  affigcre  {Ann.  xv.  44),  and  patibtilo 
affigere  {An/i..\Y.  72).  Comp.  also  Cicero,  In  Pison.  78,  cruel  siiffigere,  with 
Appulej.,  Mctam.,  vi.  130;  patibulo  stiffiga-e. — On  iKpiov  as  a  (later  Greek) 
synonym  oi patibuluin,  comp.  Zestemiann,  i.  14. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  65 

Acts  of  the  Martyrs  of  the  early  Church  afford  any  kind  of 
authorisation.^  In  Hke  manner  the  so-called  St.  Andrew's 
CROSS,  or  diagonal  cross,  X,  cannot  be  shown  to  be  a  Roman 
instrument.  That  the  Apostle  Andrew  was  put  to  death 
on  such  a  cross,  at  Patras  in  Achaia,  is  related  only  by  very 
late  and  uncertain  authorities.^  The  practice  of  criminal 
law  among  the  Romans  knows  nothing  of  any  but  upright 
standing  crosses,  no  such  criices  decussates ;  and  the  frequent 
occurrence  of  the  X  as  a  monogram  or  abbreviation  of  the 
name  of  Christ  upon  early  Christian  monuments,  does  not 
justify  us  in  the  conclusion  that  the  cross  was  frequently, 
or  even  at  all,  employed  in  this  form  for  the  torture  of 
Christians  in  the  times  of  persecution.  Nevertheless  a 
passage  of  Josephus,  to  the  effect  that  during  the  Jewish 
war  the  Roman  soldiers  sometimes  varied  the  forms  of 
crucifixion  in  the  case  of  their  captives,"^  renders  the  occa- 
sional employment  of  the  diagonal  cross  a  thing  in  itself 
quite  possible,  yea  even  not  improbable.  Beyond  tTie  limits 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  too,  this  form  of  the  cross  must  even 
earlier  have  been  called  into  requisition  here  and  there,  for 
the  purposes  of  executions,  as  its  use  has  been  retained, 
e.g.,  in  Ulterior  India,  up  to  the  present  day.  The  English 
traveller  J.  Talboys  Wheeler,  a  iQ.\^i  years  ago,  from  the  deck 
of  the  steamer   on   which  he   was   traversing  the   Irawady, 

'  Only  after  the  abolition  of  crucifixion  as  a  death-punishment,  under  the 
Christian  emperors  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  century  (according  to  Aurel.  Victor, 
De  Cits.,  41,  Sozom.,  i.  8,  and  others,  under  Constantine  the  Great ;  but  pro- 
bably not  until  somewhat  later),  there  came  into  use  a  fork-like  gibbet,  shaped 
like  a  Y,  and  called  fiirca,  as  a  Roman  instrument  of  execution.  In  the  pre- 
Constantine  period,  the  employment  of  this  Y-shaped ///;rrt  cannot  be  shown  to 
have  taken  place.  Repi'esentations  of  the  Saviour  as  hanging  upon  a  cross  of 
this  form  are  first  met  with  in  the  later  Middle  Ages.  Agi«icourt,  Hist.  deTArt: 
Peintiire,  tab.  ci.  14,  presents  an  instance,  taken  from  a  painting  in  the  chapel 
of  St.  Sylvester,  at  Rome,  belonging  to  the  year  1248.  Stockbauer,  p.  292,  gives 
this,  and  also  adds  a  few  later  examples  of  the  same  kind. 

'■^Neither  the  Martyrol.  Rom.,  under  date  of  30th  Nov.,  nor  Hippolytus,  nor 
Paulinus  of  Nola  {Carm.,  24,  406),  speak  of  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Andrew  as 
having  taken  place  upon  such  diagonal  cross. 

^  B.  y.iV.  II,  I  :  TrpocrriXovp  5'  ol  aTpaTiCoTM  tovs  aXovras  aWov  aWy  axw"-''''' 
Comp.also  the  words  of  Seneca,  Consol.  ad  Man:,  c.  20,  cited  in  a  following  note. 


66  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

witnessed  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Ava  the  horrible  spec- 
tacle of  a  human  being  nailed  to  a  X-shaped  cross  raised  on 
the  bank  of  the  stream.  And  Adolf  Bastian  saw  repre- 
sentations among  the  sculptures  of  the  Buddhist  sanctuary 
Nakhon  Vat,  in  Cambodia,  of  scenes  from  hell,  of  a  nature 
to  set  one's  hair  on  end — tortures  of  ever-increasing  ghastli- 
ness,  "until  at  last,  the  transgressors  were  fixed,  with  hands 
and  feet  outspread,  upon  crosses  (?  thus  surely  upon  X  crosses), 
and  stuck  all  over  the  body  with  nails."  ^ 

As  in  the  case  of  the  St.  Andrew's  cross,  so  in  that  of 
the  three-armed  (Egyptian)  cross,  known  as  St.  Anthony's 
CROSS,  T,  the  crux  commissa  of  Lipsius,  it  cannot  be  shown 
with  distinctness  that  it  was  ever  a  Roman  implement  of 
execution.  It  may,  of  course,  have  happened  that  in  those 
executions  with  the  patibnkiin  in  the  earlier  period  of  the 
Republic,  the  transom,  with  the  offender  attached  thereto, 
may  have  been  drawn  up  to  the  very  top  of  the  upright  pole, 
so  as  to  form  with  this  a  T  ;  yet  certainly  this  proceeding 
would  offer  greater  mechanical  difficulties  than  would  the  un- 
completed elevation,  from  which  resulted  the  form  "T".  Only 


+■ 


as  an  exceptional  case,  therefore,  would  the  nailing  to  the 
three-armed  or  J  cross  take  place  among  the  Romans;  whether 
it  did  so  more  frequently  among  other  nations  of  antiquity, 
is  a  question  not  very  easy  of  solution.  Certainly  the  appel- 
lation "  Egyptian  cross  "  is,  like  the  tradition  that  St.  Anthony 
wore  upon  his  mantle  and  on  the  top  of  his  staff  a  J  symbol, 
of  entirely  late  origin,  and  without  historic  value.^  So 
from  the  well-known  typology  of  the  Church  Fathers,  who 
look  upon  the  Greek  Tau  as  letter  and  numeral — also  in 
the  passage    Ezek.  ix.  4 — as   a   prophecy  having   reference 

'  Aiisland,  1874,  No.  41  (S.  810).     Bastian,  Die  Volkcr  des  osil.  Asien,  iv.  99. 

-Many  pictorial  representations  place  a  f-shaped  walking-stick  in  the  hand  of 
St.  Anthony,  or  show  him  beating  down  the  devil  by  means  of  such  cross-handled 
stick.  Wessely,  Iconographie  Gottes  jind  der  Ilciligen  (Leipzig,  1874),  S.  76, 
ventures  on  the  gratuitous  conjecture  that  "  the  letter  T  here  indicates  Theos 
(God)."  Why  not  in  this  case  a  9  ?  Rather  may  we  perhaps  assume  an  after- 
influence  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  Nile-key, 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  6/ 

to  Christ,  can  nothing  certain  be  concluded  as  regards  the 
form  of  the  ancient  cross  of  execution.  But  when  Lucian 
in  one  of  his  humorous  writings  represents  men  as  pro- 
nouncing a  curse  upon  Cadmus,  because  in  addition  to  the 
other  letters  of  the  alphabet  he  invented  also  the  J,  this 
model  for  the  terrible  tree  of  smart  employed  by  the  tyrants,^ 
we  have  in  these  words — because  the  form  indicated  is  cer- 
tainly not  that  of  the  ancient  Greek  or  the  Phoenician 
character,  but  the  form  of  the  T  common  in  Lucian's  time — 
surely  a  hint  in  favour  of  the  three-armed  cross  being  in 
use  at  least  side  by  side  with  the  four-armed.  So,  too,  the 
T  cross,  as  the  most  insensible  and  natural  modification  of 
the  prevailing  type,  can  hardly  have  been  wanting  among 
the  "crosses  of  various  kinds,  now  shaped  in  this  way,  now 
in  that,"  of  which  Seneca  speaks  on  one  occasion.-  And  if 
Church  Fathers  so  late  as  Gregory  the  Great  and  Isidore 
of  Seville,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century,  appear 
to  have  no  knowledge  of  crosses  for  the  purpose  of  execution 
in  the  form  of  a  T,^  nothing  definite  can  be  deduced  there- 
from with  regard  to  earlier  times  ;  and  the  more  so,  since 
their  testimony  is  in  direct  opposition  to  that  of  Lucian,  who 
lived  four  centuries  earlier.     That  among  peoples  who  were 

'  Lucian,  Alkt]  (pui^rjevTuv,  ed.  Becker,  i.  6i,  t45  yap  tovtov  {toO  TaO)  adinarl 
<j)a<ji  roiys  Tvppdvovs  aKoKovdrjaavres  /cat  fufirjuaixivovs  avrov  to  TrXda/xa,  'iTteira 
(rxvfJ.aTi  TOLOVTo:  ^vXareKTrjvai'Tas  dfdpuTrovs  dvaaKoXoTri^eii'  iw'  avrd. — A  "slavishly 
exact  imitation  "  (Zestenn.,  i.  25),  need  by  no  means  be  implied  by  fxipirjcrafievovs 
in  this  place.  Certainly  Lucian  had,  at  any  rate,  before  his  mind  a  T,  not  the  old 
Greek  form  f,  as  the  subject  of  this  imitation ;  on  which  accoimt  the  above 
inference  is  sufficiently  warranted. 

-  Consol.  ad  A  la  re,  20:  Video  istic  cruces  noii  iinius  quideiii  generis,  sed  aliter 
ab  aliis  fabricatas,  etc.  As  special  instances  of  these  variously  formed  "crosses  " 
are  mentioned,  no  doubt,  only  hangings  in  an  inverted  form  {capite  converses  in 
terram  suspendere — a  form  of  suffering  well  known  as  that  which,  according  to 
the  ordinary  tradition,  the  Apostle  Peter  underwent),  impalement  throughout  the 
length  of  the  body,  and  "stretching  out  the  arms  i:pon  the  gallows."  But  this 
very  '•^ brachia  patibido  expliciiertint'^  can  hardly  be  limited  to  crucifixion  upon 
the  f-formed  cross. 

^Gregor.  Magn.,  Moral,  in  Job,  c.  39.  Isidor.,  Comm.  in  lib.  yiidic,  c.  5. — 
For  additional  remarks  on  these  passages,  as  upon  the  testimony  (in  part  con- 
tradictory to  them),  given  by  Paulinus  of  Nola  in  favour  of  the  T  form  of  many 
execution-crosses  (^Poc/n.,  xxvii.),  see  under  Appendix  V. 


68  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

farther  removed  from  the  Roman  civilisation  of  the  west,  as 
some  American  peoples,  more  especially  the  Mexicans,  T- 
shaped  crosses  were  employed  as  instruments  of  death  or  of 
torture,  appears  an  indisputable  conclusion  from  certain  facts 
already  mentioned  in  the  preceding  division  of  this  chapter. 

The  most  ordinary  figure  of  the  cross  of  execution  in  the 
last  pre-Christian  time — and  consequently  the  one  which 
possesses  by  far  the  strongest  claims  to  be  regarded  as  having 
been    made   use  of   in  the  crucifixion  of  the  Lord — is  the 

FOUR-ARMED     UPRIGHT    CROSS    "T",    the    cviix   imuiissa   of 

Lipsius'  terminology,  or  Christian  cross,  as  it  may  be  at  once 
termed,  in  accordance  with  the  tradition  almost  exclusively 
prevalent  in  Patristic  literature  and  the  whole  of  ecclesi- 
astical art.  Whether  the  pre-Christian  use  of  this  form  of  the 
cross  can  be  supposed  to  have  extended  so  widely  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  Roman  empire  and  criminal  justice  as  Zester- 
mann  has  sought  to  show;  whether  the  above-mentioned 
crucifixions  among  the  Scythians,  the  Medes,  Egyptians, 
Syrians,  Macedonians,  Syracusans,  etc.,  are  all  to  be  conceived 
of  as  a  nailing  to  a  four-armed  cross,  so  that  thus  hardly  any 
other  than  the  Assyrians  and  Persians  are  to  be  excluded 
from  the  number  of  the  ancient  peoples  who  made  use  of  this 
instrument  of  execution — on  these  points  a  number  of  doubts 
and  queries  certainly  arise.^  But  at  all  events  the  form  of  the 
execution-cross  in  prevailing  use  amongst  the  Carthaginians 
during  the  latest  period  of  their  independent  existence,  which 
passed  over  from  them  to  the  Romans,  and  by  the  legions  of 
Rome  was  extended — until  towards  the  commencement  of 
the  imperial  age — over  the  whole  of  the  ancient  civilised 
world,  was  no  other  than  the  four-armed.  And  for  the  fact 
that  this  form  of  the  implement  of  crucifixion,  or  that  at  least 
forms  more  or  less  closely  resembling  it,  were  current  among 
the  most  diverse  heathen  nations  of  Ulterior  Asia,  those  too 
most  distantly  removed  from  the  influence  of  the  civilised 
life  of  the  peoples  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  even  among  the 
•  See  Appendix  V. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE,  69 

peoples  of  the  New  World,  we  may  accept — though  not  without 
some  critical  caution  and  reserve — the  testimonies  of  Catholic 
missionaries  with  respect  to  the  crucifixions  practised  among 
the  Malays  of  the  Molucca  islands,  among  the  Japanese,  and 
even  among  the  Mexicans  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

If  we  now  cast  a  retrospective  glance  upon  these  manifold 
forms  of  the  infliction  of  the  death-punishment  of  the  cross 
in  the  wider  and  the  narrower  sense  ;  if,  especially,  we  repre- 
sent to  ourselves  once  more  the  most  generally  occurring 
forms  of  the  cross  of  execution,  or  gibbet,  from  the  most 
primitive  crux  simplex,  down  to  the  cnix  innnissa  of  the  latest 
Roman  period  : 

ii— X(Y)xTi- 

and  take  into  account,  moreover,  the  different  modes  of  pro- 
cedure— now  milder,  now  more  severe — in  connection  with 
the  executions  made  upon  it,  then  at  any  rate  the  conviction 
forces  itself  upon  us,  that  this  mode  of  punishment  as  a 
M'hole  belongs  to  those  which  are'  the  severest  conceivable, 
and  that  the  instruments  for  its  accomplishment  well  deserve 
the  name  oi  critccs,  "instruments  of  torture;"  that,  never- 
theless, among  those  seven  or  eight  different  forms  of  the 
cross  of  execution,  that  which  eventually  became  most  widely 
spread,  and  certainly  also  was  employed  in  the  case  of  the 
Redeemer,  the  form  t  can  by  no  means  be  regarded  as 
necessarily  and  in  itself  the  most  cruel  and  terrible  one  of  all. 
The  cross  in  the  narrower  sense,  the  Roman  four-armed  cross 
of  the  Gospel  history,  cannot  be  spoken  of  without  further 
explanation  as  the  most  severe,  i.e.,  the  means  of  execution 
producing  the  most  intense  and  acute  suffering.  Several  of 
those  other  cruces,  which  the  inventive  faculty  of  the  Romans 

'  Comp.,  in  addition  to  Gretser,  De  Crttce,  i.  c.  24,  Cornel.  Hazart,  S.J., 
Kinhen-Geschichte,  3rd  edit.  (Wien  u.  Muenchen,  1727),  Yi.\.,  passim.  Contains 
various  woodcuts  representing  martyrs  cracified  on  f -shaped  crosses  ;  e.g.,  p.  179, 
such  martyrdom  on  the  island  of  Ternate  (Moluccas)  ;  p.  420,  several  sucli  in  the 
Japanese  islands ;  cp.  439,  etc.  On  the  crucifixions  among  the  Mexicans  at  the 
time  of  the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  see  below  (p.  76). 


70  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

and  other  nations  of  antiquity,  ever  fertile  and  unwearied 
in  the  discovery  of  new  forms  of  suffering  and  torture,  has 
devised,  of  which  many  have  survived  to  the  most  recent 
times  in  the  barbarian  justice  of  ruder  tribes,  must  have  been 
adapted  to  produce  death  not  less  painful.  Thus  the  impale- 
ment, or  piercing  through  the  body  lengthwise,  described  by 
Seneca  and  Hesychius,  as  indeed  ^o.  furca  in  its  earlier  mode 
of  infliction  as  a  scourging  to  death  of  the  fugitive  laden 
with  the  fork,  must  have  effected  the  same  result  ;  not  to 
speak  of  other  instruments  of  torture,  not  falling  under  the 
general  conception  of  "  crosses,"  as  the  threshing  sledge  or 
the  heated  brick-kilns  of  the  orientals,  the  burning  on  stakes, 
the  laceration  by  wild  beasts  in  the  circus,  or  the  terrible 
mode  of  execution  still  practised  in  China,  called  Lingchih, 
and  consisting  in  the  gradual  hacking  of  the  body  in  pieces. 
It  is  true  Cicero,  in  his  oration  against  Verres,  several  times 
speaks  of  crucifixion  as  the  "  worst,  supreme,  most  cruel,"  or 
"odious,"  form  of  punishment,^  and  without  doubt  he  has 
before  his  mind  the  execution  upon  the  four-armed  cross  ; 
thus  crucifixion  in  the  narrowest  and  most  usual  acceptation. 
But  that  this  mode  of  execution  was  never  equalled  or  sur- 
passed in  severity  by  any  other,  is  certainly  an  inference 
vmwarranted  by  these  expressions.  For,  on  the  one  hand,  we 
must  take  into  account  the  rhetorical  colouring  and  excited 
character  of  these  descriptions,  which  did  not  allow  time  for 
the  careful  pondering  of  the  expressions  chosen,  or  for  a 
calmly  reflecting  comparison  of  the  execution  described  with 
others.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  later  juristic  authorities, 
such  as  PauUus  and  the  digests  of  Justinian,  place  various 
other  modes  of  execution,  as  belonging  with  this  to  the 
category  of  "  supreme  punishments  "  (summa  supplicia),  ex- 
pressly on  a  level  with  it  :  the  former  of  these,  burning, 
beheading,  and  casting  to  the  wild  beasts  in  the  circus ;  the 
latter,  burning  and  beheading.^     It  is  evident,  therefore,  that 

'   Very.,   v.   66,    169 :    Servitutis   extremiim    summumque    supplicium ;    v.    66, 
165  :  Crude]  issimum  treterrimumque  supplicium. 

Paulli,  Sent.   5,  t.   17,  3:  Summa  supplicia  sunt   crux,  crematio,  decollatio ; 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  J I 

the  expression  "highest"  or  "supreme  punishment"  here,  as 
ah'eady  in  Cicero,  is  to  be  taken  only  in  a  relative  sense, 
and  by  no  means  is  it  to  be  understood  as  indicating  the 
extreme  of  torture  and  of  pain. 

That  which  undoubtedly  was  looked  upon  as  culminating 
in  the  punishment  of  the  cross,  was  the  element  of  shame,  of 
dishonour,  and  of  infamy  upon  the  condemned  which  attached 
to  it.  Crucifixion  was — herein  Cicero  is  perfectly  right,  and 
in  harmony  with  the  Biblical  view  of  it  ^ — tcetevrinmni  sup- 
plicium,  the  most  odious  form  of  punishment,  the  climax  of 
shame  which  could  be  attached  to  one  judicially  or  extra- 
judicially visited,  the  ancient  equivalent  for  that  which  was 
termed,  in  the  legal  phraseology  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
"  wheel  or  gallows  " — the  pnnisJuiient  in  ivhich  the  reproach  or 
ignoiiiiny  heaped  upon  the  condemned  rose  to  the  JieigJit  of  male- 
diction. In  proof  of  the  specially  ignominious  character  of 
this  death  of  the  cross,  which  mainly  distinguished  it  from 
those  other  less  disgraceful  forms  of  the  snmmuni  snpplicinm — 
burning  alive,  beheading,  and  tearing  to  pieces  by  wild  beasts, 
we  may  more  particularly  urge  the  fact  already  mentioned, 
that  it  was  essentially  a  punishment  for  slaves,  or  a  kind  of 
execution  inflicted  upon  robbers,  rebels,  deserters  of  the 
colours — occasionally  also  on  poisoners,  falsifiers  of  documents, 
or  violators  of  the  person.^  Further,  the  fact  that  precisely 
those  condemned  to  the  cross,  the  cruciarii,  were  subjected  to 
insults  of  a  preparatory  and  supplementary  kind,  such  as  the 
compelling  to  drag  forth  the  instrument  of  torture  on  which 
they  were  to  die,  the  scourging,  the  urging  forward  with  the 
ox-goad,    the  depriving  of  all  the  garments,  the  affixing  of 

t.  23,  17  :  Magicoe  artis  conscios  summo  supplicio  affici  placuit,  ?.6'.,  bestiis  objici  aut 
cruci  suffigi.  Comp.  Digest.,  48,  19,  de  pcenis,  Num.  28  :  Summum  supplicium  esse 
videtur  ad  furcam  (=  cmcem)  damnatio,  item  vivi  crematio,  ,  .  .  item  capitis 
amputatio,  etc. 

'  See  Deut.  xxi.  22  f.  ;  Gal.  iii.  13. 

^  Comp.  that  saying  of  Cicero  :  Scii'iiittis  extr.  summumque  suppl.,  cited  in  a 
previous  note,  as  well  as  the  words  by  which  it  is  immediately  followed  :  Facinus 
est  vinciri  civem  Romanum  ;  scelus,  verberari ;  prope  parricidium,  necari ;  quid 
dicain,  in  cruceni  tolli  >■  Verbo  satis  digno  tam  nefaria  res  nullo  modo  dici  potest. 
Other  authorities  to  a  like  effect  see  mentioned  on  p.  60,  note  ". 


'J  2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

a  tablet  to  the  uppermost  arm  of  the  cross,  setting  forth  the 
offence  with  which  they  were  charged,  and  other  such  hke 
accompaniments.^  And  not  less  the  custom  still  occasionally- 
observed,  even  in  the  time  of  the  emperors,  of  nailing  corpses 
(as  well  as  living  beings)  to  crosses,  in  order  even  in  death  to 
brand  them  with  infamy,  as  those  deprived  of  honourable 
burial  and  exposed  to  the  ravages  of  wild  beasts  and  birds 
of  prey.^  Finally,  the  direct  testimonies,  not  only  of  a  Cicero 
but  also  of  a  number  of  Christian  writers  belonging  to  the 
age  of  imperial  Rome,  and  certainly  acquainted  with  Roman 
customs,  all  which  agree  in  designating  precisely  this  mode 
of  execution  as  one  more  than  all  others  disgraceful  and 
dishonouring.^ 

The  crucified  one  appears  as  accursed,  one  rejected  from 
human  society  with  every  demonstration  of  passionate  abhor- 
rence, as  an  outcast  and  refuse  of  men.  It  may  be  asked 
whether  the  instrument  of  suffering  on  which  this  punishment 
was  inflicted  did  originally  present  a  conscious  or  unconscious 
imitation  of  that  baneful  tree,  the  partaking  of  whose  fruit  in 
opposition  to  the  Divine  command  became  for  the  first  parents 
of  our  race  the  cause  of  their  expulsion  from  Paradise? 
Indistinct  reminiscences  of  this  fatal  catastrophe  in  the 
primeval  age  may  have  perpetuated  themselves  amongst  the 
most  ancient  peoples,  and  gradually  have  led  to  the  formation 
of  the  custom  of  exposing  the  most  execrable  or  the  most 
hated  transgressors  upon  such  very  trees  or  stakes,  or  upon 
tree- like  or,  finally,  cruciform  scaffolds,  as  the  prey  of  cor- 
ruption or  of  the  wild  beasts ;  the  scaffolds  at  the  same  time 
serving  as  imitations  or  memorials  of  the  hated  Tree  of 
Knowledge.       Points  of  attachment  for  such  a  supposition  are 

'  Further  details  in  Zestermann,  ii.  24  ff.     Degen,  S.  26  f.  ;  28  f. 

^  See  that  which  has  been  said  above. — Instances  of  the  affixing  of  those  ah-eady 
put  to  death  (or  at  least  of  their  heads)  upon  crosses,  taken  from  the  last  days  of 
the  Republic  and  the  time  of  the  Empire,  will  be  found  :  Sueton. ,  Ccrs.  74  (case 
of  the  Cilician  pirates)  ;  Herodian,  iii.  8.  2  ;  Xiphilin.  Excerpt,  ex  Dion.  xxi.  ; 
Severus  (p.  315,  ed.  Steph.  1592),  etc. 

^  See  especially  Paul,  Phil.  ii.  8,  and  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
xii.  2.  Also  Arnobius,  i.  36,  40,  41  ;  Lactantius,  Iiistit.,  iv.  26;  Chrysost.,  in 
Joann,,  Horn.  85,  2. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  J  ^ 

not  altogether  wanting.  The  expression,  dating  back  from 
the  earliest  antiquity  of  the  Hebrew  language  and  civilisation, 
■"  to  hang  on  a  tree  "  (in  which  cts,  "  tree,"  is  ambiguous — and 
may  equally  denote  either  a  tree  or  a  stake  or  gallows),  as 
likewise  that  ancient  Roman  title,  " arlwr  infclixl'  "tree  of 
misfortune,"  or  "  ill-omen,"  are  perhaps  to  be  explained  in 
the  sense  above  indicated.  The  connection,  too,  in  which 
the  mythological  tradition  of  many  peoples  places  a  certain 
sacred  tree  with  a  dragon  or  serpent  as  emblems  of  evil  or  the 
power  of  death,  must  here  be  recalled  to  memory.  Not  only 
the  tree  of  the  world,  Yggdrasil  of  the  Northlanders  and  Ger- 
mans, gnawed  at  its  roots  by  the  serpent  Nidhoegr,  belongs 
to  this  class  of  representations.  Upon  ancient  Egyptian 
sarcophagi  also,  as  well  as  upon  Tyrian  coins,  we  sometimes 
see  depicted  a  mysterious  tree  with  fruit-bearing  boughs,  and 
round  it  a  serpent  coiled.  A  snake  dwelling  in  a  fruit-bearing 
tree  was  worshipped  by  the  Caribbees  of  Central  America,  as 
the  dispenser  of  rain  and  fertility.  Traditions  of  the  Tree  of 
Knowledge  and  of  a  "  dragon  from  the  deep,"  who  first  taught 
Fo-hi  the  distinction  of  the  sexes,  are  handed  down  in  the 
earliest  religious  writings  of  the  Chinese.  For  the  earlier 
history  of  Indian  Buddhism,  Fergusson  has  contributed  from 
the  topes  of  Sankhi  and  Amravati,  covered  as  they  are  with 
remarkable  sculptures,  a  rich  abundance  of  monumental 
evidence  for  the  worship  of  trees  and  serpents,  here  practised 
in  very  close  connection.-^  Even  in  the  domain  of  the  Fetich 
religions  of  ruder  tribes,  are  found  here  and  there  rites  in 
which  we  are  tempted  to  see  a  faint  reminiscence  of  the 
misery-bringing  Tree  of  Knowledge.  Thus  that  superstitious 
custom  of  the  negroes  of  Central  Africa,  attested  by  Burton, 
which  consists  in  driving  a  nail  into  a  so-called  "  devil's  tree," 
or  hanging  a  rag  upon  it,  in  order  to  heal  or  charm  away  a 

'  Fergusson,  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  pi.  xxiv.,  xxvi.,  etc.  Cp.  with  regard 
to  the  Chinese,  Liiken,  as  before,  S.  98  ;  to  the  Caribbees,  Miiller,  as  before, 
S.  131.  Further,  Hammer-Purgstall,  Fundgriiben  des  Orients,  Bd.  v.  ;  Wagner, 
Die  Nordisch-germanische  Vorzeit,  i.  48  ff.  On  Tree  Worship  in  general ;  E.  B. 
Tylor,  Early  Histojy  of  Mankind  and  of  Civilisation,  ii.  216—230  (of  Germ.  edii. 
J873),  W.  Mannhardt,  Dcr  Baumcultus  der  Germanen,  etc.  (1875). 


74  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

disease,  by  exorcising  the  evil  spirit  ©f  the  disease.^  Many  of 
the  instances  previously  mentioned  of  the  worship  of  sacred 
trees,  e.g.,  among  the  ancient  Celts,  or  the  North  and  South 
American  Indians,  may  likewise  to  some  extent  be  ranged 
under  this  head.  As,  indeed,  the  notions  "  curse "  and 
"  blessing  "  insensibly  blend  with  each  other  in  the  mysteri- 
ous region  of  idolatrous  tree-worship,  no  less  than  in  that  of 
serpent-worship — in  which  the  conception  of  the  serpent  as 
agathodsemon  or  cacodsemon,  most  closely  verge  the  one  on 
the  other — and  as  in  general  a  confused  mingling  of  the 
reminiscences  of  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  and  the  Tree  of  Life 
in  Paradise  seems  to  have  taken  place.  We  can  here  only 
just  glance  at  this  sinister  domain — with  which  are  fre- 
quently associated  sacrificial  rites  of  an  inhuman  character — 
namely,  of  the  daemonolatrous,  and  even  directly  devil- 
worshipping  superstition  of  heathen  nations  in  ancient  and 
modern  times.  A  further  investigation  thereof  could  besides 
yield  an  essential  advantage  to  the  cause  of  our  investigation^ 
if  those  earlier  ideas  and  customs  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned, which  can  be  with  certainty  referred  to  the  pre- 
Christian  age,  were  only  presented  in  greater  plenty.  But 
it  is  for  the  most  part  only  elements  of  later  phases  of  deve- 
lopment of  the  said  religions  of  barbarous  or  civilised  peoples, 
with  which  we  become  acquainted  in  the  above-mentioned 
sphere. 

The  whole  question  as  to  the  echoes  of  primitive  traditions  of 
Paradise  and  the  Fall  remains,  from  its  very  nature,  to  a  great 
extent  involved  in  obscurity.  Whether,  indeed,  perfectly  clear 
and  certain  results  are  to  be  obtained  regarding  the  signifi- 
cance in  relation  to  the  past  of  the  objects  of  heathen  tree  and 

'  Burton,  Central  Africa,  ii.  p.  352.  Comp.  E.  B.  Tylor,  ii.  148  f.  (of  the 
German  edition),  where  attention  is  also  drawn  to  the  kindred  superstitious 
customs  which  have  been  jserpetuated  among  the  Germanic  peoples  until  recent 
times  ;  such  as  the  nailing  or  hanging  of  supposed  causes  of  sickness  upon 
the  trunk  of  a  tree,  etc.  [For  a  notice  of  the  practice,  still  common  in  Palestine, 
of  hanging  rags  upon  trees  "as  acknowledgments,  or  as  deprecatory  signals  and 
charms,^''  comp.  Thomson,  "  Land  and  the  Book,"  p.  442 ;  Andrew  Bonar, 
"  Narrative  of  a  Mission  to  the  Jews,"  p.  29S.] 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  75, 

cross  worship,  appears  at  best  doubtful,  especially  when  we 
take  into  consideration  the  more  or  less  veiled  form  in  which 
the  account  of  the  garden  of  Eden  and  its  two  trees  is  handed 
down  to  us  in  Holy  Scripture,  as  well  as  the  effectually  blind- 
ing influence  of  sin  and  the  worship  of  the  creature  upon  the 
religious  consciousness  of  mankind  after  the  time  of  Paradise- 
More  important  than  the  question  as  to  the  origin  of  the 
phenomena  under  review,  is,  it  seems  to  us,  that  as  to  their 
end  and  aim.  A  typical  and  prophetic  relation,  though  only 
a  mediate  one,  to  the  cross  of  the  Redeemer,  on  the  part  of 
these  symbols  of  the  cross  in  Heathendom,  themselves  indi- 
cative of  misery  and  the  curse,  must,  it  appears  to  us,  be  of 
necessity  admitted  ;  even  as  we  perceived,  in  the  emblems 
of  a  like  kind  indicative  of  salvation  and  blessing,  a  similar 
typical  relation  to  the  cross.  The  ivorld-renewing  fact  of  the 
cancelling  of  the  curse  which  had  descended  from  Adam,  by 
means  of  the  blessing  brought  about  by  the  second  Adam  npon 
the  altar  of  the  cross  on  Calvary,  has  been  proclaimed  aforeJiand 
by  a  twofold  series  of  shadowy  types,  brighter  ones  and 
darker,  in  the  pre-Christian  history.  As  we  saw  shadowed 
forth  in  the  cross-figures  of  positive  religious  significance, 
the  agathodsemonic  figures  of  the  cross,  before  considered,  the 
positive  salvation-bringing  and  transforming  power  of  the 
redemptive  sufferings  on  the  cross  ;  so  also  these  very  suffer- 
ings on  their  negative  side — inasmuch  as  these  indicated  the 
utmost  effect  of  the  sinful  principle  of  evil  in  mankind  in  the 
slaying  of  the  sacred  body  of  the  God-man,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  removal  of  the  tree  of  the  curse  and  of  death  wdiich  rested 
upon  our  race — were  reflected  in  the  dark  succession  of  idols, 
and  symbols  of  the  curse,  of  a  cacodjemonic  cross-worship  of 
the  heathen  world.  Even  the  various  implements  of  execu- 
tion and  of  torture  comprised  under  the  general  notion  of 
crn.v,  of  which  the  religious  significance  originally  attached  to. 
them  had  in  the  course  of  time  disappeared,  must  be  regarded 
as  types  of  that  cross  on  Calvary,  the  instrument  of  torture 
and  of  death  for  the  Son  of  Man,  but  on  this  very  account 
the  means  of  deliverance  for  humanity.     In  more  pregnant 


•jG  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST, 

measure,  however,  is  a  typical  activity  having  this  end  in 
view  to  be  ascribed  to  those  crosses  of  suffering  (and  rites 
connected  with  crucifixion)  in  the  ancient  world,  to  which  was 
consciously  attached  a  deeper  religious  import,  as  being  the 
places  of  the  propitiatory  sacrifices  for  the  averting  of  the 
wrath  or  conciliating  the  favour  of  Divine  powers.  That, 
among  the  numerous  and  diverse  pre-Christian  rites  of  cruci- 
fixion, there  were  also  expiatory  ones,  can  scarcely  admit  of 
dispute.  The  character  of  a  sacrificial  act  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  term  was  borne  indeed,  as  we  have  already  shown,  by 
no  act  of  crucifixion,  at  any  rate  among  the  better  known 
civilised  peoples  of  ancient  history.  But  that  there  were 
no  expiatory  rites  connected  with  the  religious  symbolism 
of  the  cross,  that  the  positive  religious  and  the  negative 
religious  significance  of  the  cross — its  blessing  and  its  curse- 
denoting  import,  beyond  the  pale  of  Christianity — were 
constantly  divergent, — in  other  words,  that  the  cross  of  the 
Lord,  as  an  instrument  of  suffering  and  of  the  curse,  was 
never  and  nowhere  an  object  of  prophetic  presentiment 
and  typical  foreshadowing  :  this  opinion,  advanced  in  the 
Edinbnrgh  Revieiv,  by  the  essayist  to  whom  reference  has 
already  often  been  made,  cannot,  in  presence  of  so  many 
significant  facts  of  the  pre-Christian  history  of  religion,  by 
any  means  be  maintained.  The  essayist  himself  alludes 
to  that  bloody  right  of  expiation  practised  among  the 
Mexicans  already  referred  to — a  rite  consisting  in  the 
nailing  of  a  young  man  or  maiden  to  a  cross,  and  piercing 
the  victim  through  with  arrows.^  In  other  respects,  too,  the 
religious  customs  of  the  Mexicans  and  Yucatese  seem  to 
have  included  some  single  similar  acts  of  expiation  by  blood, 
performed  np07i  crosses  or  in  presence  of  them.  Before  that 
remarkable  Tree  of  Life,  Tonacaquahuitl,  a  child  appears — 
according  to  the  representation  of  the  monument  of  Palenque 

'  Ediiib.  FezK,  1870,  i.  p.  233  ;  cp.  p.  229.  The  remark  in  the  latter  passage- 
' '  that  the  instrament  of  torture  — the  aravpos  or  infamous  tree — was  never 
symbolised  at  any  time,  that  is,  in  any  pre-Christian  age,"  certainly  goes  too  far, 
and  fails  of  doing  justice  to  such  cases  as  that  brought  forward  in  the  former  ot 
these  places,  or  as  those  to  be  adduced  by  us  farther  on. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  J 'j- 

— to  have  been  presented  as  an  offering ;  and  an  idol 
dripping  with  blood  hangs  upon  the  T-shaped  gigantic  cross, 
as  it  is  depicted  in  some  ancient  Mexican  manuscripts.^  If^ 
as  is  the  case  with  so  many  of  the  monuments  and  traditions 
of  the  history  of  religion  in  America,  falling  within  our 
province,  we  cannot  perhaps  entirely  exclude  a  suspicion 
pointing  to  Christian  influences  ;-  and  if  the  well-known 
Krishna  legend  of  the  Hindoos — which,  inter  alia,  has  to 
relate  of  Vishnu,  incarnate  as  Krishna,  that  he  offered  himself 
upon  a  cross — appears  still  less  free  from  such  suspicion,  but 
rather  looks  like  a  Hindoo  transformation  of  the  Gospel 
narrative,  borne  beyond  the  Indus  during  the  first  centuries 
of  our  aera  by  disciples  of  St.  Thomas  or  by  some  other 
Christians  ;  ^  yet  there  still  remain  abundant  traces  of  an 
actually  expiatory  design  in  the  employment  of  the  cross  in 
the  cross-worship  and  in  the  customs  of  crucifixion  among 
the  nations  of  the  extra-Christian  world,  against  the  origi- 
nality of  which  no  solid  objections  can  be  raised.  That 
cross  tree  of  the  Celtic  Druids,  stripped  of  its  foliage  and 
boughs — consecrated  at  the  time  of  full  moon,  in  the  midst  of 
their  sacred  oak  groves,  as  a  special  symbol  of  the  Godhead 
— appears  indeed  to  have  served  predominantly  as  an 
emblem  of  salvation  and  blessing,  but  certainly  witnessed  also 
many  a  bloody  human  sacrifice,  of  which  the  cruel  ritual  of 
this  priesthood  demanded  such  numbers,  offered  beneath  its 
bare  arms.  And  the  "  images  of  enormous  size,"  which,  as 
is  already  related  by  Caesar,  were  among  the  same  people 
filled  with  human  beings  of  all  kinds — with  transgressors 
condemned  to  death,  but  also  with  innocent  victims, — and 
were  then  set  on  fire,  to  be  consumed  as  a  gigantic  burnt- 

'  See  above,  p.  25. 

^  Even  the  Spaniards  in  Cortez'  time  thought  the  after-operation  of  the 
preaching  of  Christianity  in  India,  once  undertaken  by  the  Apostle  Thomas,  was 
to  be  recognised  in  the  customs  to  which  we  now  refer.     (Liiken,  11. s.,  S.  78.) 

^  See  the  work  of  tlie  learned  Hindoo,  Bholanauth  Chunder,  Travels  of  a  Hindoo 
to  various  parts  of  Bengal  and  Upper  India,  Lond.  1869,  voh  ii.,  p.  25,  in  which 
this  view  of  the  Krishna  legend  as  a  plagiarism  from  early  Christian  sources  is 
emphatically  maintained. 


yS  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

■offering  or  expiatory  sacrifice,  seem  to  have  been,  hardly 
other  than  the  preceding,  sacred  oaks  mutilated  into  stumps 
or  pillars  of  half  cruciform,  half  human  shape.^  It  may 
appear  significant  that,  in  the  description  of  this  terrible 
custom,  Caesar  twice  makes  use  of  that  very  expression, 
suppliciinn,  of  which  the  primitive  meaning  "  sacrifice,"  opens 
up  such  an  instructive  insight  into  the  ancient  Roman 
conceptions  of  expiatory  sacrifice  and  infliction  of  death, 
as  notions  closely  bordering  the  one  on  the  other — yea, 
as  originally  covering  each  other. — Even  to  the  ancient 
Indians  also,  spite  of  the  probably  not  original  character  of 
that  Krishna  myth,  certain  expiatory  rites  in  connection 
with  their  veneration  of  cruciform  emblems,  may  not  have 
been  altogether  strange.  The  prevalence  of  agonising  scenes 
of  crucifixion  amidst  the  representations  of  the  Buddhistic 
hell  upon  temple  ruins  of  Ulterior  India,  as  well  as  the 
custom  still  practised  in  that  very  region  of  executing  trans- 
gressors upon  the  cross  of  St.  Andrew,  seems  to  point  to  this 
conclusion." 

More  clearly  and  unambiguously  still  do  we  find  the  mean- 
ing of  the  pre-Christian  cross,  as  significant  alike  of  curse  and 
of  blessing,  expressed  in  the  mysterious  type  of  the  serpent, 
raised  by  Moses  upon  a  pole  in  the  wilderness  (Num.  xxi.  8, 
9).  A  partial  connection  of  this  emblem,  placed  by  the  Lord 
Himself  in  direct  typical  relation  to  His  sacrificial  death  upon 
the  cross  of  Calvary  (John  iii.  14),  with  the  serpent  and  tree 
worship  of  the  Egyptians,  must  without  doubt  be  admitted  ; 
although  Moses  caused  it  to  be  raised,  assuredly  with  no  idola- 
trous intention,  as  a  symbol  of  salvation  addressed  to  the  faith 
of  the  Jews  then  bitten  by  the  fiery  serpents  of  the  wilderness, 
and  by  this  very  fact  afforded  a  symbol  prophetically  pointing 
forward  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  the  Redeemer  from  the 

'  Coes.  B.  G.,  vi.  i6.  4  :  "Alii  immani  magnitudine  simulacra  habent,  qiionim 
contexta  viminibus  membra  vivis  hominibus  complent,  quibns  succensis  circum- 
venli  flamma  exanimantur  homines.  Supplicia  eorum  qui  in  furto,  in  latrocinio, 
aut  aliqua  noxa  sint  comprehensi,  gratiora  diis  immortalibus  esse  arbilrantur  ;  sed 
cum  ejus  generis  copia  defecit,  etiam  ad  innocentium  supplicia  accedunt." 

-  See  above,  p.  66. 


AS    THE    SYiMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  79 

ruin  of  sin  and  of  death.^  An  idolatrous  significance  was 
afterwards  attached  by  the  people  to  this  symbol,  inasmuch 
as,  like  their  Canaanitish  neighbours,  and  especially  the  Phoe- 
nicians, addicted  as  they  were  to  the  worship  of  trees  and 
serpents,  they  offered  incense  to  a  brazen  image  of  a  serpent, 
■called  "  Nehushtan "  {Brass-god),  until  Hezekiah  broke  this 
idol  to  pieces  (2  Kings  xviii.  4). — That  in  certain  practices  of 
the  Mosaic  sacrificial  ritual,  in  which  the  figure  of  the  cross, 
or  at  least  something  bearing  a  distant  resemblance  to  it,  is 
represented,  there  is  contained  a  divinely  appointed  and  in- 
tended series  of  types,  pointing  to  the  offering  of  atonement 
one  day  to  be  presented  on  Calvary,  has  been  often  asserted 
in  the  contemplations  of  earlier  theologians  upon  this  domain.^ 
Especially  the  paschal  lamb,  transfixed  in  the  form  of  a  cross 
upon  the  spit,  as  well  as  the  movement  with  the  different 
parts  of  the  sacrifice  (of  those,  too,  presented  by  the  Levites 
at  their  anointing)  in  the  direction  of  the  four  points  of  the 
compass,  in  the  so-called  "  waving,"  has  been  often  looked 
upon  in  the  light  of  such  prophetic  act,  pointing  forward  to 
the  death  of  the  Lord  upon  the  cross.  Hardly,  however,  is 
this  view  justified  ;  since  neither  the  law  itself  nor  the  pro- 
phetic literature  of  the  Old  Covenant  presents  any  utterance 
favouring  it.  Nor  is  there  found  in  the  New  Testament  any 
reference  to  those  customs  as  of  Messianic  import,  as  we  must 
assuredly  expect  would  be  the  case — especially  in  such  books 
as  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews — if  they  really  belonged  to  the 
cycle  of  the  genuine  typical  pre- representations  of  the  work 
of  redemption. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  seems  to  be  actually  present  a 
coinciding  under  the  Old  Testament  of  the  two  significations 

'  Comp.  already  JVisdoin  of  So/,  xvi.  6,  7  :  avfifioKov  aurrjpias  .  .  .  .  ov  Sta  to 
■€euipovfj.€vov,  dXXd  5ta  tov  Trdvrwp  auTTJpa.  [''  A  sign  of  salvation  ,  .  .  not  by  the 
thing  that  he  saw,  but  by  Thee,  that  art  the  Saviour  of  all."]  Not.  indeed,  the 
■deeper  Messianic-prophetic  meaning,  but  yet  the  providential  institution  of  this 
mysterious  symbol,  as  well  as  the  distinction  between  it  and  the  idols  of  Gentile 
ophiolatry,  is  here  rightly  perceived.  To  teach  us  to  understand  this  prophetic 
action  in  its  full  significance,  the  word  of  the  Lord  to  Nicodemus  was  necessary, 

^  Compare,  inter  alios,  G.  Mobius,  De  Agno  Paschali,  i.  p.  50,  and  L.  Dassovius, 
Signa  Crucis  Gentis  Hebnetr,  Kil.,  1695. 


8o  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  the  cross-symbol,  as  indicative  of  the  blessing  and  the  curse 
in  the  important  passage,  Ezek.  ix.  4.  If,  then,  a  delivering 
sign,  in  the  form  of  a  Tau  or  cross,  is  to  be  imprinted  upon 
the  brow  of  certain  God-fearing  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  at 
the  time  of  a  severe  judgment  impending  over  the  city,  this 
in  reality  has  the  appearance  of  a  prophetic  pointing  forward 
to  the  delivering  power  of  the  redeeming  death  of  Christ,  once 
to  be  accomplished.  P"or  this  Tau,  of  Ezekiel,  is  certainly  in 
any  case  not  without  significance,  and  a  figure  of  mere  arbi- 
trary choice  ;  like  that  sign  of  subscription  once  spoken  of  by 
Job  (Job  xxxi.  35).^    As  a  symbol  imprinted  on  the  forehead, 

shaped  like  a  T,  or  rather  like  a    j     (an   ancient   Hebrew 


t 


letter  Tau),  it  is  designed  not  only  to  mark  out  its  bearers 
from  among  the  multitude,  but  also  specially  to  designate  them 
as  devoted  (inscribed)  to  Jehovah,  as  slaves  of  the  Lord  {servt 
literati,  inscripti).  It  appears  thus,  then,  of  Messianic-prophetic 
import,  inasmuch  as  in  this  sign  upon  the  forehead  is  depicted 
the  instrument  of  the  curse  and  of  suffering,  on  which  the 
Saviour  was  destined  one  day  to  suffer,  and  to  work  out  the 
redemption  of  the  world.  A  higher  providential  ordering  of 
events  on  the  part  of  that  God  who  disposes  all  things — under 
the  Old  Testament  not  less  than  under  the  New — for  the  sal- 
vation of  man  will  here  hardly  be  lost  sight  of  by  the  believing 
student  of  history.  To  explain  the  cruciform  shape  of  the 
delivering  sign  as  the  result  of  a  mere  play  of  accident  appears 
— if  we  presuppose  belief  in  the  presence  of  a  Divine  guidance 
and  control  in  the  sacred  history — much  more  difficult,  yea, 
more  unreasonable,  than  to  derive  this  agreement  between 
typical  sign  and  fulfilling  antitype,  here  also,  as  in  the  case 
of  so  many  other  agreements,  and  especially  that  which  takes 
place  in  connection  with  the  brazen  serpent,  from  the  counsel 

'  See,  for  example,  my  Comin.  on  Job,  in  loc.  (Lange's  series).  Singularly,  but 
certainly  arbitrarily,  Tayler  Lewis,  in  his  Anglo-American  edition  of  my  Commen- 
tary, p.  133,  supposes  the  expression  iri,  Job  xxxi.  35,  to  stand  (as  the  last  letter) 
for  the  whole  alphabet,  and  then  to  signify  farther,  "  that  which  is  written,"  "  a 
writing. "  Much  more  to  the  point  is  the  comparison,  instituted  by  us,  with  the 
Arabic  Tiiva,  "brand,"  "mark," 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  8 1 

of  the  three-one  God,  previously  considering  and  wisely  or- 
daining all  things  that  come  to  pass.^  An  unconscious  pro- 
phecy, no  doubt,  is  this  to  be  termed  in  one  respect  ;  since 
the  full  bearing,  and  the  special  significance  in  the  history  of 
the  fulfilment,  of  that  which  according  to  God's  eternal  plan 
of  salvation  should  be  proclaimed  aforehand  by  the  delivering 
sign  upon  the  forehead,  assuredly  lay  beyond  the  horizon  of  the 
priestly  seer.  And  still  less  than  the  prophet  himself,  did  the 
pre-Christian  people  of  God  in  the  ages  succeeding  him  recog- 
nise the  profound  meaning  of  this  remarkable  prophecy — that 
in  it  w4iich  pointed  to  the  centre  of  the  Messianic  work  of  salva- 
tion. For  nowhere  does  the  pre-Christian  Jewish  literature  show 
any  trace  of  that  Messianic  sense  of  the  same,  which  only  the 
Fathers  of  the  Christian  Church,  from  the  time  of  Tertullian, 
Origen,  and  Jerome,  have  vindicated  for  it,  in  opposition  to 
the  interpretation  based  on  a  superficial  refining  away  and 
conjectural  appreciation  as  of  no  importance,  which  sees  in 
theTau  only  the  equivalent  of  "Sign" — such  as  we  meet  with 
in  the  versions  of  Aquila  and  Symmachus  no  less  than  tha-t 
of  the  LXX.  (Alexandrine  version).^  Like  so  many  an  other 
Old  Testament  prophecy  relating  to  the  Lord  and  His  work 
of  salvation,  this  utterance  of  Ezekiel  also  could  be  rightly 
understood  and  interpreted  only  after  the  time  of  its  fulfil- 
ment.^ In  so  far  as  pious  Apocalyptists  and  prophetically 
gifted  bearers  of  the  Spirit  of  God  of  the  last  period  before 

'  Comp.  Schmieder  in  v.  Gerlach's  Bibelw.,  in  loc,   as  also  Schroder  in  loc. 
(Commentary  on  Ezekiel  in  Lange's  series.) 

°  The  LXX.  understood  in  as  the  exact  equivalent  of  "sign  "  (5ds  a-r^ixeZov  iir^ 
TO,  fieroj-rra  tCjv  dvSpiov),  thus  excluding  from  the  passage,  as  does  once  more  the 
modern  naturalistic  Exegesis  [Gesenius,  Hitzig,  etc.],  every  reference  to  a  -j-  or 
T-like  shape  of  the  sign.  Thus  did  also  Aquila,  who  nevertheless,  according  to 
Origen  (comp.  Fragt7i.  vet.  I)ilerpret.  Grcec.,Tp.  587)  had  in  the  first  edition  of  hi 
version  reproduced  the  word  by  dav  ;  so  did  Symmachus  in  like  manner.  Theo- 
dotian,  on  the  other  hand,  made  the  first  advance  towards  the  Christian  interpre- 
tation of  the  passage  in  reference  to  the  cross,  by  his  version  :  <rri/j,€LU}(nv  roO  6au 
iirl  TO.  /xerojira  twv  avSpGiv.  Comp.  Tertull.,  adv.  Marc,  iii.  22  ;  Cyprian,  Testi- 
vion.  adv.  yud.,  ii.  22  ;  Origen,  in  Ezech.,  Opp.,  t.  iii.,  p.  424  ;  Jerome,  in  Ezech., 
ix.  4  ;  and  Esai.  Ixvi. ;  Isidorus,  Origin.,  i.  3,  9  ;  etc, 

'  Scarcely  can  the  Roman  custom  of  denoting  any  one  {e.g.,  a  soldier)  as  living, 
by  the  sign  T — as  dead,  by  the  sign  6,  have  any  connection  with  the  tau  of  the 

6 


82  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Christ — like  those  waiting  for  Israel's  consolation  (Luke  ii» 
25,  38),  or  like  John  the  Baptist  (John  i.  29,  36) — recognised 
beforehand  the  necessity  for  the  redeeming  suffering  of  the 
Messiah,  and  were  able  to  express  that  which  they  had  con- 
templated in  the  Spirit  concerning  Him,  in  profound  words 
of  prophecy,  like  that  of  the  "  sign  which  should  be  spoken 
against,"  or  that  of  the  "  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world  " — in  so  far,  indeed,  may  prophetic  utter- 
ances like  Isaiah  liii.,  or  Psalm  xxii.,  or  Dan.  ix.  24  ff.,  but 
hardly  such  as  that  passage  of  Ezekiel,  have  served  to  them 
as  Biblical  treasuries  and  pole-stars.  The  Spirit  of  Old  Testa- 
ment prophecy  wrought  of  necessity  more  from  within  out- 
wards, and  by  inner  preparation  and  enlightenment  of  the 
heart,  than  by  means  of  a  very  great  plenitude  of  external 
symbols — i.e.,  symbols  having  reference  to  the  external  his- 
torical manner  of  accomplishing  the  work  of  salvation.  These 
latter  have  nowhere  and  never  been  wanting  to  the  Divine 
paedagogia  for  Christ ;  neither  in  the  Mosaic  and  pre-Mosaic, 
nor  in  the  prophetic  epoch  of  the  Old  Covenant.  But  the 
revealing  of  their  deeper  meaning,  and  the  leading  into  the 
full  and  ripened  understanding  of  them,  must  remain  reserved 
for  the  time  when,  after  the  setting  up  of  the  New  Covenant, 
the  Spirit  should  be  given  without  measure  into  the  hearts  of 
believers,  and  the  concealing  veil  of  the  law  should  be  taken 
away  from  their  eyes. 

Several  other  alleged  instances  of  direct  prediction  of  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  in  Old  Testament  books  or 
in  extra-Biblical  writers,  to  which  the  Church  Fathers  were 
wont  to  attach  a  special  importance  in  their  Apologies 
directed  against  heathen  or  Jews,  are  entirely  of  an  apocryphal 

passage  in  question.     (On  the  custom  itself,  see,  on  the  one  hand,  Pers.,  Sat., 
Et  polls  es,  nigrum  vitio  prsefigere  Theta  ; 

and,  on  the  other,  Isidorus,  Orig.,  i.  23,  p.  40,  ed.  Lindem  :  "T  nota  in  capita 
versiculi  posita  «</crj/2V(?/«  designabat. ")  Rather  might  we  suppose  a  connection 
with  the  Egyptian  ansate  cross,  which  signifies  "hfe."  But  Raoul  Rochette, 
U.S.,  p.  289,  rightly  rejects  this  supposition  too,  leaving  it  doubtful  whether  we 
must  credit  the  testimony  of  Isidorus  regarding  this  custom. 


AS    THE    SYMBOL    OF    THE    CURSE.  83 

order.  They  are  to  be  reduced  either  to  instances  of  an 
interpolation  into  the  text,  of  Christian  origin,  as,  e.g.,  the 
much-cited  addition  "from  the  tree,"  airo  rod  ^vKov,  which 
a  number  of  MSS.  of  the  Septuagint  are  said  to  have  read  in 
Psalm  xcvi.  10;^  or — as  the  alleged  prophecy  as  to  the  dominion 
of  the  world  on  the  part  of  the  crucified  Christ,  which  used  to 
be  discovered  in  a  passage  of  Plato's  Timaeus — to  instances  of 
an  allegorising  interpretation  and  an  arbitrary  importing  of 
Christian  historic-philosophic  speculation.^  For  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  a  more  accurate  acquaintance  with  the  apologetic 
treatment  of  the  question,  and  with  the  whole  scientific 
method  of  the  Church  theology  of  the  first  centuries,  these 
examples  of  Messianic  argumentation,  digressing  as  they  do 
into  an  uncritical  method,  are  exceedingly  instructive;  while 
they  are  in  themselves  scientifically  valueless,  and  wanting 

*  It  was  beyond  doubt  MSS.  of  the   LXX.,  interpolated  by  a  Christian  hand 
and  in  the  interests  of  Christianity,  which  read  in  Psalm  xcv.   10  (Psalm  xcvi.   of 
the  Greek)  :   on  6  Kvpios  i^affiXeva^ev  aTrb  rod  ^vXov,  and  from  which  not  only 
Greek  Church  Fathers  (Barnabas,  £j>.,  c.  8,  5  ;  Justin,  Dml.  c.    Tryph.,  p.  298  ; 
Cyril  of   Jerus.,  etc.),   but   also   the  Christian    west    {Itala,  ex  ligno ;    Tertull., 
adv.  Marc,  iii.    19,  2  ;  adv.   Jud.,  c.  II  ;  Augustine,  Enarr.  in  Ps.,  p.  714  ;    lib. 
qncest.,  64;  Pseudo-Ambrosius,    Comm.  in  i  Cor.  xv.  ;  Leo  M.,  Serm  a^depass.; 
Greg.  M.,  Horn.  vi.   in   Ezech.,    etc.)  received  this    addition,  and   employed  it 
apologetically  against  Heathen  and  Jews.     If  the  interpolation  had  really  been  of 
pre-Christian  origin,  it  must  have  been  traced  back  to  the  same  Alexandrine- 
Jewish  speculation  on  the  paradisiac  Tree  of  Life — which  was  not  pervaded  by 
any  deeper  Messianic  meaning,  and  in  particular  had  no  reference  to  the  atoning 
death  of  Christ — which  gave  rise  to  allusions  to  this  very  Tree  of  Life  also  in  the 
books  of  Enoch  (xxiv.  4  f.  ;  xxv.  5)  and  4  Esr.  (viii.  52).     Comp.  Miiller,  Erkldr. 
des  Barnabasbr.,  S.  213  f.     The  same  is  the  case  with  the  apocryphal  addition  to 
Jerem.   xi.    19:    "  Venite,   conjiciamus    lignum  in  panem  ejus"    (Itala),  which 
figures    in  the  writings  of  many   Fathers,    e.g.,  Tertull.,   adv.  Marc,  iii.    18  f.  ; 
iv.  40  ;  Cyril,  Catech.,  xiii.,  etc.,  as  a  prophecy  concerning  the  cross  of  Christ ;  as 
with  the  interpolation  of  the  passage  4  Esr.  v.  5,  adduced  by  Barnabas,  Ep.,  c.  12: 
^Tdv  i{]\ov  KXidfj  Kal  dvaarfj,  Kal  orav  iK  ^AXov  atfia  ord^y]  (cp.  Miiller,  i.e.,  p.  272). 
In   the   same   manner   several  passages  of  the  Sibylline  oracles  belong  to  this 
category,  especially  1.  v.  v.  257  sg.  (p.  600  Gall.),  and  1.  viii.  v.  245,  of  which  last 
we  shall  have  to  treat  more  fully  hereafter. 

^  Justin,  Apol;  i.  p.  92,  interprets  the  words  of  Plato,  having  reference  to  the 
diffusion  of  the  world-soul,  or  Divine  vow,  through  all  the  world  {Tim.,  p.  36), 
ixi.a.<jiv  avTov  iv  t^.  TravTi.  as  relating  to  the  lifting  up  of  Christ  upon  the  cross  ; 
whereas  the  x'^^f""  is  here  intended  simply  to  speak  of  a  spreading  out  to  the 
four  points  of  the  compass. 


84  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

in  any  solid  historic  foundation.  They  can  be  just  as  little 
accepted  as  actual  predictions  concerning  the  person  and 
work  of  the  Redeemer,  as  can  those  cruciform  figures  of  the 
Jewish  Cabbalists — figures  which  have  had  their  rise  indeed 
under  Christian  influences — the  names  of  the  ten  Sephirofh 
(Divine  attributes,  or  forms  of  revelation)  grouped  together 
in  such  wise  as  to  represent  a  tree,  with  roots,  stem,  and 
crown,  or  else  an  erect  human  being :  a  form  in  which 
the  philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  especially  modern 
Theosophy,  from  the  time  of  Agrippa  v.  Nettesheim  and 
Jacob  Bohme  downwards,  would  find  contained  the  mystery 
of  the  Trinity  and  that  of  Redemption.^ 

'  We  shall  return  subsequently  to  the  more  detailed  treatment  of  the  stauro- 
sophic  speculations  of  modern  mysticism.  As  a  typical  preformation  of  the  cross 
does  our  Edinburgh  Reviewer  also  regard  the  cabbalistic  sephiroth-tree  of  Jewish 
mysticism.     ("The  Pre-Christian  Cross,"  p.  242.) 


85 


II. 

li|e  Cr0ss  nyon  Calbarn;. 

ALL  the  curse  and  the  blessing,  all  misery  of  death  and 
glory  of  life,  which  had  been  spread  abroad  through 
the  pre-Christian  humanity,  appear  in  the  cross  of  Christ, 
concentrated  in  the  most  wondrous  image  of  the  religious 
and  moral  development  of  our  race.  In  the  uplifted  banner 
of  salvation,  which  is  to  the  Jews  an  offence,  to  the  Gentiles  a 
folly,  we  see  all  at  once  intersecting  each  other  the  two  lines 
of  the  sinful  corruption  of  man  and  the  Divine  call  of  grace  ; 
lines  running  side  by  side  with  each  other,  in  abiding 
separation,  throughout  all  previous  ages.  They  intersect 
each  other  in  rugged,  sharp  opposition,  and  with  such  mighty 
impact  that  the  dark  line  of  the  sin-curse  is  pierced  to  the 
heart  with  deadly  effect  by  the  bright  line  of  salvation.  The 
health-giving  Tree  of  Life,  towards  which  the  longing  of  all 
nations  had  been  directed  through  the  ages,  and  the  poisonous 
Tree  of  Knowledge,  fruitful  in  misery,  before  whose  arrows 
they  had  trembled,  and  under  whose  death-shade  they  had 
sighed :  they  here  appear  wondrously  formed  into  one  ;  and 
over  that  figure  leafless  and  bare,  but  beaming  with  the 
blessed  hope  of  salvation,  stands  written  in  the  fiery  characters 
of  Divine  revelation,  Death  is  swallozved  up  in  victory !  The 
Life  itself  is  here  become  death,  the  blessing  a  curse,  the  Holy 
One  of  God,  become  sin — for  ever  to  annihilate  the  dominion 
of  sin  and  of  death. 

From  early  times  in  the  Church,  some  have  endeavoured 
to  explain  the  corqimon  antitype  of  the  two  trees  of  Paradise 
uplifted  on  Calvary,  in  such  wise  that  the  cross  itself  should 


86  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

be  seen  to  be  foreshadowed  in  the  Tree  of  Knowledge,  and 
on  the  other  hand  the  Crucified  One  hanging  thereupon,  in 
the  Tree  of  Life.^  And  in  reahty  this  essay  at  interpretation 
contains  a  deep  truth,  abundantly  attested  by  Holy  Scripture, 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  of  the  New,  Christ  Himself  is  the 
real  Tree  of  Life ;  the  prototype  of  that  wondrous  tree  from 
whose  salvation-bringing  sight  and  enjoyment  mankind  had 
been  removed  in  consequence  of  sin,  without  ever  being  able 
to  lose  the  memory  of  it.  He  is  called  indeed  in  the  Old 
Testament — as  the  eternal,  heavenly  Wisdom  of  God — a 
"Tree  of  Life"  (Prov.  iii.  i8)  ;  even  as,  with  regard  to  His 
human  nature  and  origin,  He  is  called  a  "rod  out  of  the 
stem  of  Jesse,"  and  a  "branch  out  of  his  roots"  (Isa.  xi.  i). 
And  He  calls  Himself  in  the  New  Testament  the  "  true  Vine  " 
(John  XV.  I  ff.) ;  He  speaks  of  Himself  as  the  "green  tree," 
which  must  suffer  instead  of  the  dry  wood,  properly  destined 
for  fuel  (Luke  xxiii.  31).  The  green  wood,  the  gloriously 
blossoming  fruit-laden  palm  tree  (Psalm  i.  3  ;  xcii.  12),  is 
hanged  upon  the  dry  bare  tree  of  the  curse  (Gal.  iii.  13)  ;  He 
consecrates  this  precisely  thereby  as  a  place  of  blessing,  grows 
into  one  with  it,  as  a  gladdening,  world-renewing  Tree  of 
Life,  at  whose  roots  gushes  forth  the  fountain  of  everlasting 
life,  whose  fruit  affords  to  every  one  the  true  and  ever- 
satisfying  food,  and  whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations  (Rev.  ii.  7  ;  xxii.  2).  All  that  which  had  expressed 
itself  in  the  pre-Christian  world  in  efforts  after  the  ideal  or 
real  [i.e.,  by  means  of  tj'pes]  representation  in  religious 
symbolism  of  the  Tree  of  Life  as  the  compendium  of  all 
blessedness,  finds  here  its  fulfilment,  its  Divine  ratification, 
in  a   blessing   extending   exceeding  abundantly  beyond   all 

'  Christ  Himself  (not  for  instance  His  cross)  is  taken  as  the  antitype  of  the 
Tree  of  Life,  by  Barnabas,  £/>.,  c.  12,  init.  (comp.  above,  p.  83),  Justin,  Dial.,  c.  86; 
Origen  in  Joh.,  torn.  xx.  §  29  ;  Methodius,  Conviv.  x.  virgg.,  Orat.  ix.  c.  3  ; 
Greg,  of  Nyssa,  Orat.  iv.  in  resun-ect.  ;  Epiphanius,  Honiil.  in  Sabb.  magna  (Opp. 
t.  ii.  p.  274)  ;  Anastas  Sinaita,  Anagog.  contetnpl.  in  Hexaan.,  1.  viii.,  etc. — Of 
modern  writings  favouring  this  view  are  especially  to  be  mentioned  James 
Hamilton,  Emblems  from  Ede7i,  chapter  i.,  "The  Tree  of  Life;"  and  Piper, 
"Der  Baum  des  Lebens"  {Evang.  KaUnder,  1863),  S.  39  ff. 


THE    CROSS    UPON    CALVARY.  8/ 

previous  dimly  realised  conception  and  even  longing.  They 
are  all  of  them  unreal  shadows,  these  Trees  of  Life  of  the 
extra-Christian  religions,  vain  and  empty  phantoms,  com- 
pared with  the  Tree  of  Life  of  reality,  the  blessing-distilling 
tree  of  the  curse  on  Calvary,  on  which  He,  in  whom  all  the 
promises  of  God  are  Yea  and  Amen,  pours  forth  His  sacred 
heart's  blood !  It  is  certainly  a  superficial  view  on  the  part 
of  modern  writers  of  the  philosophy  of  history,  that  the  Tree 
of  Life  and  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  are  (even  according  to 
the  Biblical  account !)  one  and  the  same.-^  And  equally  to 
be  rejected  as  this  speculation,  in  direct  and  flagrant  con- 
tradiction as  it  is  with  all  exegetical  truth,  appears  that 
confused  mingling  of  the  two  symbols,  such  as  was  met  with 
above  in  the  case  of  several  extra-Christian  religions,  as  in 
that  of  the  Chinese,  Indian-Buddhist,  and  Celtic ;  a  confusion 
shared  also  by  several  gnostic  sects  of  the  early  Christian  age, 
inasmuch  as  precisely  the  transgression  of  the  Divine  pro- 
hibition in  Paradise  was  regarded  by  them  as  an  important 
step  in  advance,  and  a  source  of  blessing.^  But  in  the  cross 
of  Calvary  the  Tree  of  Life  and  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  do 
certainly  appear  comprehended  in  one  deeply  significant 
prototypal  unity ;  and  in  this  unity  shall  we  find  the 
explanation  of  the  fact  that  the  religion  of  the  cross  pre- 
sents in  absolute  fulness  and  perfection  these  two  things  :  a 
theoretical  foundation  of  truth  of  the  highest  solidity,  and  a 
morally  renewing  effect  of  more  wondrous  nature  and  power 

'  So,  e.g.,  Christ.  Kapp  (in  Carriere,  Aesthetik,  i.  S.  354):  "The  open  eye 
sees  growing  up  in  history  the  Tree  of  Life  and  Knowledge,  the  ash  Yggdrasil, " 
etc.     Entirely  different  the  sentiment  of  Byron  in   Cain,  where  he  puts  into  the 

mouth  of  his  hero  the  words. 

The  tree  of  life 
Was  withheld  from  us  by  my  father's  folly. 
While  that  of  knowledge,  by  my  mother's  haste, 
Was  pluck'd  too  soon  ;  and  all  the  fruit  is  death. 

*  The  mystic  speculation  of  the  Ophites  is  greatly  occupied  with  the  Tree  of 
Life  and  the  anointing  proceeding  from  it,  of  which  the  Son  is  partaker.  But  it 
therein  identifies  the  Tree  of  Life  with  the  Tree  of  Knowledge,  just  as  it  perceives 
in  the  seducing  serpent  the  blessing-fraught  principle  of  Wisdom.  Comp.  Celsus, 
in  Origen,  /card  K^Xo-ok,  vi.  33,  34 ;  Epiphanius,  Har.,  37  ;  also  Keim,  Celsus 
wahres  Wort,  S.  86,  89. 


0  5  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

than  that  of  any  other  religion.  On  this  account  the  cross 
of  the  Saviour  appears,  even  for  the  general  contemplation  of 
the  philosophy  of  history,  or  for  the  aesthetical  study  of  the 
history  of  civilisation,  "  the  axis  for  the  history  of  the  world, 
as  for  the  history  of  the  soul,"  and  He  Himself  "the  copula, 
the  connecting  middle  in  the  period  of  the  judgment."  He, 
"  the  purest  among  the  mighty,  and  the  mightiest  among 
the  pure,  who  with  His  pierced  hand  removed  kingdoms  out 
of  their  place,  and  the  stream  of  the  ages  out  of  its  bed, 
and  still  continues  to  exert  dominion  over  time" — He  is  and 
remains  the  centre  of  all  history,  and  of  all  historic  life  and 
cogniti©n.^ 

The  mystery  of  the  cross  is  the  mystery  of  mysteries ;  to 
seek  to  exhaust  its  depths  is  to  seek  to  exhaust  the  depths  of 
the  whole  Divine  Revelation.^  That  which  is  here  primarily 
incumbent  upon  us  is  the  bringing  out  of  that  knowledge 
concerning  the  significance  of  the  cross,  for  the  world  and 
for  the  kingdom,  which  can  be  derived  from  the  immediate 
statements  in  regard  to  it  found  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  of 
the  New  Testament.  We  begin  with  the  contemplation  of  the 
Messianic  testimonies  of  the  God-man  concerning  Himself, 
viewed  in  their  connection  with  the  respective  facts  of  the 
Gospel  history;  and  thus  contemplate  the  cross  and  the  death 
of  the  Lord  on  the  cross,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  light  of  the 
declarations  of  the  Gospels  themselves. 


A.  ACCORDING  TO  THE  DECLARATIONS  OF  THE  GOSPELS. 

That  which  Symeon  and  John  the  Baptist,  the  last  out- 
lying representatives  of  that  prophetic  development  which 
had  the  Lord  as  its  object,  condensed  into  those  brief  but 
profoundly  pregnant  words,  of  inexhaustible  import :  the 
negative    (sin-bearing,    death-overcoming)    and    the    positive 

'  Carriere,  Aesthetik,  S.  364  f.,  and,  further,  the  words  of  Jean  Paul  there 
cited. 

^  Mackay,  The  Glory  of  the  Cross  (Lond.  1874),  p.  2  ff. 


ACCORDING    TO    THE    GOSPELS.  89 

(raising-,  Divine  life-infusing)  side  of  His  redeeming  activity, 
that,  too.  He  certainly  also  confirms  Himself  from  time 
to  time,  in  utterances  of  like  prophetic-enigmatic  brevity, 
e.g.,  that  of  the  sign  of  Jonas  (Matt.  xii.  39;  xvi.  4),  of  the 
breaking  down  of  the  temple  and  raising  it  again  (John  ii. 
19,  22),  of  the  lifting  up  of  the  Son  of  Man  (John  viii.  28). 
But  in  the  majority  of  the  declarations  regarding  the  accom- 
plishment of  His  work  of  suffering,  He  unfolds  more  distinctly 
and  fully  the  import  of  this  cross,  and  the  relations  of  His 
sufferings  to  the  same,  so  that  far-reaching  conclusions  are 
to  be  derived,  either  from  His  words  themselves  or  from  the 
connection  in  which  they  were  spoken.  We  distinguish  three 
groups  of  such  declarations  : 

I.  Those  which  bring  into  relief  the  PROPHETIC-TYPICAL 
significance  of  the  suffering  on  the  cross.  To  this  class 
belongs,  not  only  that  direct  requirement  of  the  taking  up 
of»  one's  cross,  and  following  behind  Him  (Matt.  x.  38),  but 
— as  is  shown  by  the  recurrence  of  these  very  words  in 
Matt.  xvi.  24 — in  general  each  of  the  solemn  predictions  of 
His  death  and  resurrection,  of  which  the  Gospel  history 
records  altogether  four  (Matt.  xvi.  21  ;  xvii.  22  ;  xx.  18  ; 
xxvi.  2,  and  parallel  places).  Farther,  the  declaration  con- 
cerning the  object  contemplated  in  the  sending  of  the  Son  of 
Man,  who  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister, 
and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many  (Matt.  xx.  26  f ) ; 
the  saying  concerning  the  necessity  that  the  corn  of  wheat 
should  fall  and  die,  as  the  condition  of  its  bringing  forth 
fruit  (John  xii.  24  f ),  as  well  as  several  of  the  words  spoken 
in  the  parting  discourses  to  the  disciples  recorded  in  John ; 
such  as  John  xiii.  15  f:  "An  example  have  I  given  you,"  etc. ; 
and  XV.  13:  "Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a 
man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends,"  etc. — As  these  utterances 
lay  special  emphasis  upon  the  sufferings  of  the  God-man,  as 
the  glorifying  completion  and  sealing  of  the  prophetic  testi- 
mony, or  of  the  Redeemer's  ministry  of  teaching  during  the 
days  of  His  flesh,  so  there  exists,  again,  a  further  series  of 
sayings  of  the  Lord  having  relation  to  His  cross,  in 


go  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

2.  Those  which  bring  into  relief  the  PRIESTLY,  or  sin- 
expiating  and  mediatorial  significance  of  the  Passion.  Christ 
died  for  us,  not  merely  as  our  example,  but  also  as  our 
atonement — as  the  vicarious  sacrifice  for  our  guilt.  His 
suffering  on  the  cross  is  an  exemplary  suffering  before  us, 
but  also  a  representative  suffering  instead  of  us ;  as  it  calls 
for  willing  imitation,  so  does  it  at  the  same  time  demand 
the  response  of  adoring  love  towards  Him  who  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions  and  bruised  for  our  iniquities.  As 
the  good  Shepherd  giveth  His  life  for  His  sheep,  so  has  He 
in  our  stead  surrendered  Himself  a  prey  to  the  foe  (John  x. 
15).  He  suffered  Himself  to  be  numbered  among  the  trans- 
gressors, when  in  our  place  He  went  to  the  death  of  shame, 
the  green  tree  in  the  stead  of  the  dry  (Luke  xxiii.  31,  '^'j)  ; 
when  He  gave  His  soul  a  ransom,  a  holy,  precious  redemption 
price  for  many  (Matt.  xx.  28  ;  cp.  xvi.  26).  In  sublime  high- 
priestly  intercession  sanctifying  Himself,  i.e.,  consecrating 
Himself  to  death  (John  xvii.  19)  for  His  own,  He  suffered 
Himself — like  the  serpent  set  up  by  Moses  in  the  wilderness 
— to  be  lifted  up  as  a  delivering  sign  of  the  curse  (John  iii. 
14).  Precisely,  hereby,  did  He  become  the  priestly  Mediator 
of  a  new  covenant,  who  is  able  to  give  His  flesh  as  the 
true  meat,  and  His  blood  as  the  true  drink,  to  the  dearly 
purchased  members  of  His  kingdom  (Matt.  xxvi.  26,  and 
parallels). — Along  with  the  priestly  side  of  His  Divine-human 
work,  these  latter  utterances  bring  into  relief  also  the  con- 
cluding and  completing  work  which  Pie  continues  unto 
eternity,  as  exalted  to  the  right  hand  of  God  in  heaven ; 
they  form  the  immediate  transition  to 

3.  Those  utterances  respecting  the  relations  of  the  Passion 
to  the  KINGLY  dignity  of  the  Lord.  For  the  radiance,  too, 
of  His  kingly  dignity  shines  forth  out  of  the  night  of  His 
sufferings,  and  glorifies  the  dark  cloud  of  shame  and 
abasement  which  was  permitted  for  a  little  while  to  gather 
over  Him.  His  deepest  humiliation,  to  the  death  of  slaves 
and  malefactors,  becomes  immediately  "glorifying"  (John 
xiii.    31    f),   an   "exaltation"   (John   viii.    28),  and   that   an 


ACCORDING    TO    THE    GOSPELS.  9 1 

exaltation   fraught  with  blessed  effects  for  all  that  believe 
in   Him   (John   iii.    14  f.),  for   all  who   allow  themselves   to 
be  drawn  to   Him   as   His    own    (John    xii.  31  f.)      In   the 
midst  of  the  abasement  and  reviling  on  the  part  of  Gentiles 
and  Jews,    He    expressly  calls    Himself  a   king  (John   xviii. 
33 — T^6),    He    points    triumphantly    to    the    testimonies    of 
His    kingly   dignity '  and   judicial    glory    proceeding  from    a 
higher  world — a    dignity  and    a    glory  which   He  will  soon 
render    manifest     to    the    whole    world    (Matt,    xxvi.    64 ; 
comp.  xvi.    28;  xxiv.    30  ff.  ;    xxv.   31  ff.  ;    John  v.  22,   28; 
vi.  40,   54).      And  just  as  little  as   He  shrinks  from  these 
claims  to  the  highest  and  most  glorious  place  of  authority 
in   the   kingdom  of  God   (comp.    Matt,  xxviii.   18 — 20),  just 
so  little  does  He  relinquish  the  kingly  high-priestly  preroga- 
tive of  pardon  and  of  blessing.     Even  on  the  cross  does  He 
exercise   this,    His   Divine    kingly  right   towards    those  who 
had  cursed  Him  (Luke  xxiii.   43) ;  and  already   before  had 
He  characterised  precisely  His  going  hence  as  a  blessing- 
fraught  coming  to   His  people   (John  xiv.  23,   28  ;   xvi.  22), 
precisely  His  dying  as  the  way  to  the  bringing  forth  much 
fruit,  i.e.,  to  the  presenting  of  His  flesh   for  the  life  of  the 
world    (John   vi.   51  f;  xii.  24),  precisely  the  offering  up  of 
His  faithful  shepherd  soul  as  the  means  for  the  bringing  in 
of  the  other  sheep,  and  the  uniting  of  all  in  one  flock  under 
one  shepherd  (John   x.    16).     Thus  the  place  of  His   execu- 
tion is  seen  to  be  the  scene  of  His  exaltation  to  the  glory 
of  a  Divine  kingship.     Unto  salvation  for  all  who  believe  in 
Him  does  it  there  become  manifest   that  He  suffered  not 
merely  before  us,  and  instead  of  us,  but  also  for  us — that  His 
suffering  was   not    merely  a  prophetic-typical,   and   a  high- 
priestly  atoning  one,  but,  in  addition  to  all  this,  also  a  royally 
blessing,  kingdom-founding,  world-transforming  suffering. 

To  these  declarations  of  the  Lord  concerning  the  sig- 
nificance of  His  suffering,  corresponds — according  to  the 
testimonies  of  the  four  Evangelists,  here  especially  comple- 
menting each  other  in  fullest  harmony,  and  producing  the 
impression  of  the  strictest  historical  fidelity — THE  ACTUAL 


92  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

UNFOLDING  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  HiS  PASSION.  No  Step 
of  the  ascent  of  suffering,  even  up  to  the  summit  of  the 
skull-place,  remains  untrodden  by  Him ;  even  to  the  last 
drop  must  the  bitter  cup  of  suffering  which  the  hand  of  the 
Father  presents  to  Him,  be  drained.  In  all  its  fearfulness 
does  the  most  horrible  of  all  death-punishments,  the  crude- 
lissimum  t<2terrim.u'mqiie  suppliciinn  of  the  Romans,  rage  itself 
out  upon  His  pure  body.  All  that  the  crafty  malignity 
of  the  arch-enemy  of  mankind  had  been  able  to  compress 
of  the  nature  of  exquisite  torture  into  this  product  of 
the  ingenuity  in  the  infliction  of  punishment  among 
Carthaginians  and  Romans ;  all  that  was  contained  of  a 
Satanic  and  deadly  nature  in  this  magnified  copy  and  offset 
of  the  woe-fraught  Tree  of  Knowledge,  must  be  experienced 
by  Him  in  its  whole  extent,  be  endured  by  Him  unto  the 
entire  quenching  of  His  earthly  light  of  Hfe.^ 

No  pang  is  spared  Him  which  this  terrible  mode  of  execu- 
tion brings  with  it :  but  He  suffers  it  all  with  the  patience  of  a 
lamb  which  is  brought  to  the  slaughter.  The  insolent  stroke 
upon  the^face,  in  the  examination  before  Annas  (John  xviii. 
19  ff.),  and  the  furious  blows  with  which  the  Jewish  coun- 
cillors, under  the  presidency  of  Caiaphas — vieing  in  this 
with  their  menials — presumed  to  outrage  His  sacred  body 
(Mark  xiv.  65),  are  followed  in  the  court  before  Pilate  by 
the  scourging  (Matt,  xxvii.  26),  which,  ruthlessly  inflicted 
at  a  post,  formed  according  to  the  practice  of  criminal  justice 
among  the  Rorhans  the  regular  introduction  and  prelude 
to  the  approaching  execution.^  In  this  case  there  is  added, 
as  a  further  species  of  maltreatment,  the  crowning  with  a 
wreath  woven  out  of  the  prickly  branches  of  a  thorn  bush 
(Matt,  xxvii.  29) — a  crowning  which  not  only  was  expres- 
sive of  insult  and  derision,  but  also  assuredly  wounded  with 

'  Mori  voluit  pro  nobis,  parum  dicimus;  crucifigi  dignatus  est:  usque  ad  mortem 
crucis  obediens  factus,  elegit  extremum  et  pessimum  genus  mortis,  qui  omnem 
fuerat  ablaturus  mortem:  de  morte  pessima  occidit  omnem  mortem. — Aug., 
Tract.  36  in  Joann. 

^The  "teJ-rible  preface"  to  the  death  of  the  cross  (Keim,  Gesch.  Jesu,  3  Bearb., 
S-  333)-     Compare  below,  Appendix  VI. 


ACCORDING    TO    THE    GOSPELS.  93 

piercing  smart.  The  bearing  of  the  cross — that  is,  certainly, 
not  merely  its  cross-beam  or  patibuluvi,  but  the  whole  of  the 
great  and  heavy  implement  of  death  ^ — occasions,  even  at 
half  of  the  distance  to  the  place  of  execution,  the  sinking 
down  in  a  fainting  condition  of  that  body,  already  so  terribly 
weakened  and  exhausted  by  the  blows  of  the  lash.  A  Jew 
at  the  moment  passing  that  way,  Simon  of  Cyrene,  is  com- 
pelled by  the  rude  soldiery  to  take  from  the  Lord  the 
burden  become  too  heavy  for  Him,  and  to  bear  it  up  to 
Calvary.  Large  and  terrible  nails,  proverbial  for  their  hard- 
ness  and  firmness,^  are  driven — after  the  setting  up  of  the  cross, 
and  the  raising  of  the  condemned  upon  it  to  the  height  of 
the  transverse  beam,  as  well  as  after  the  preparatory  binding 
of  Him  to  this  transverse  beam  with  cords ^ — through  both 
hands,  and  certainly  also  through  the  feet  of  the  crucified  ; 
as  these  latter  were  placed  one  upon  the  other  and  transfixed 
with  one  common  nail*  What  tortures  must  be  endured  in 
consequence  of  this  cruel  proceeding — tortures  arising  from 
the  inflammation  of  the  blood-trickling  wounds  in  the  hands 
and  feet,  from  the  rush  of  blood  to  the  head  and  inner  parts 
thus  occasioned,  from  the  terrible  agony  of  not  being  able 

'  This  in  opposition  to  Cobet  {Mne7nosyne,  viii.,  p.  276),  who  supposes  only  the 
patibtilum,  or  cross-bar,  to  have  been  borne  by  the  condemned  to  the  place  of 
execution — a  view  which  he  supports  mainly  by  an  appeal  to  a  fragment  of 
Plautus,  preserved  in  Nonius  Marcellus,  p.  221  :  patibulum  ferat per  urbem,  deinde 
ajigatur.  With  justice  does  Zestermann  urge,  on  the  other  hand,  that  after  the 
time  of  Cicero  patibulmit  appears  to  be  fully  equivalent  to  crux,  and  that  the 
expression  cruce7n  portare,  familiarly  occurring  in  the  Fathers  from  the  second 
century  downwards  (TertuU.,  Jer.,  etc.),  cannot  possibly  denote  merely  "carrying 
the  horizontal  beam  of  the  cross  ; "  but  must  rather  signify  a  bearing  of  the  whole 
cross,  composed  of  upright  beam  and  transom.  Whence  else  the  so  crushing 
weight  of  which  Luke  (xxiii.  26)  testifies? — Keim,  u.s.,  p.  336,  seeks  still  to 
uphold  Cobet's  view  in  opposition  to  the  convincing  reasoning  of  Zestermann, 
without,  however,  advancing  anything  decisive  in  favour  of  his  position.  Comp. 
further.  Appendix  VL 

■■^  Horace,  Carm.,  i.  35,  18  : 

Clavos  trabales  et  cuneos  manu 
Gestans  aena,  etc. 

'  See  Appendix  VI ;  The  single  external  circumstances  and  proceed- 
ings  IN   THE  WORK  OF  CRUCIFIXION. 
*Ibid.,  No.  7. 


94  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

to  turn,  of  continuing  fixed  in  an  unnatural  position  of 
the  body,  from  a  maddening  sensation  of  thirst,  from  a  be- 
numbing of  the  muscles,  arteries,  and  nerves,  advancing  with 
exceeding  slowness  from  the  extremities  to  the  centre  of  life, 
— all  this  can  only  be  a  matter  of  imperfect  conception,  not 
of  trustworthy  description.  The  very  first  of  those  terrible 
strokes  of  the  hammer  which,  as  a  voice  of  judgment  upon 
an  ungodly  race,  "  re-echoing  in  immensity  and  prolonged 
unto  the  last  day,"-'  descended  upon  His  sacred  hands  and 
feet,  formed  the  beginning  of  a  process  of  execution,  than 
which  anything  more  torturing  and  painful  was  hardly  ever 
experienced.  And  z/"  there  were  indeed  modes  of  death  more 
frightful,  if  anything  more  hellish  still  had  been  devised  by 
Satan  for  the  punishment  of  mankind  which  serves  him  :  the 
Lord,  who  had  lived  the  noblest  and  purest  life  here  below, 
died  the  death  of  the  cross  as  the  most  painful  and  most 
fearful  of  all.  He,  who  knew  no  sin,  endured  the  sufferings 
of  that  death  designed  for  the  worst  of  sinners,  as  the  bitterest 
of  all  sufferings ;  the  One  pure  and  holy  above  all  angels 
experienced  these  pangs  more  keenly  than  any  single  child 
of  man  would  ever  be  able  to  experience  them. 

No  testimony  of  unmerited  hate  is  spared  Him,  who  yet 
suffers  as  love  itself  The  painful  tortures  of  the  cross 
become  for  Him  still  more  painful  ;  because  they  fall  upon 
Him,  the  Sinless  One,  as  one  rejected,  as  one  who  is  righte*^ 
ously  placed  on  a  level  with  the  worst  tran.sgressors,  and  has 
become  a  curse  and  object  of  aversion  for  all  mankind.  Not 
©nly  must  He  see  fulfilled  that  which  was  prophesied  with 
regard  to  Him  in  Psalm  xli.  9  :  "  He  which  eateth  bread  with 
me,  hath  lifted  up  his  heel  against  me  "  (John  xiii.  18)  ;  not 
only  was  the  flight  of  all  His  apostles,  not  only  was  the 
denial  of  Peter  {Mark  xiv.  50,  66  ff.)  mingled  as  a  bitterly 
painful  addition  in  His  cup  of  suffering.  In  His  examina- 
tion He  must  see  the  representatives  of  His  nation,  as  well 

'  Mackay,  The  Glory  of  the  Cross,  p.  43.  Cp.  what  was  said  long  before  by  Leo 
the  Great,  Sermoy'i.  de  Passione Domini,  c.  4  :  Pendente  enim  in  patibulo  Creatore, 
oniversa  creatura  congenaviit,  et  crucis  clavos  omnia  simul  elementa  senserunt. 


ACCORDING    TO    THE    GOSPELS.  95 

as  the  representatives  of  the  Roman  authority,  testifying  in 
melancholy  rivalry  against  His  holy  and  innocent  cause.  A 
murderer  is  demanded  by  the  people  in  place  of  Him  (Matt, 
xxvii.  i6  ff.)  ;  and  between  two  other  murderers  must  He 
hang  upon  the  cross,  as  one  who  is  forsaken  of  men — nay, 
also  of  God  Himself  (Matt,  xxvii.  38,  and  parallels).  As  an 
accursed  one,  an  offscouring  of  all  things,  does  He  hang  upon 
the  tree  of  suffering :  and  yet  He  has  become  a  curse  only 
in  order  that  He  might  become  salvation  and  blessing  to 
all ;  become  as  a  sinner — yea,  sin  itself,  only  in  order  that 
He  might  be  able  to  cancel  the  sins  of  all  sinners.^  Only 
to  this  end  did  He,  the  heavenly  High  Priest  of  the  New 
Covenant,  suffer  Himself  to  be  slain  as  a  holy  and  spotless 
sacrificial  lamb — though  indeed  as  an  atoning  sacrificial 
lamb,  as  a  sin-offering,  like  the  victim  on  the  great  day  of 
atonement — namely,  that  He  might  make  all  expiation  for 
sin  by  means  of  sacrifice,  henceforth  for  ever  unnecessary, 
that  He  might  comprehend  in  one  all  the  sacrifices  of  the 
Old  Testament  ritual,  sin-offering  and  trespass-offering,  burnt- 
offering  and  peace-offering,  meat-offering  and  drink-offering, 
in  one  ideally  completing  presentation  of  sacrifice ;  and 
remove  them  out  of  the  way,  in  favour  of  that  worship  of 
God  in  spirit  and  in  truth  which  henceforth  takes  their  place.^ 
Hated  without  a  cause,  as  never  any  other  on  earth  (John.  xv. 
25),  He  loves  all — and  not  merely  His  own — with  a  love  such 
as  was  never  before  displayed  among  men.  He  loves  them 
with  a  love  which  delivers  not  only  from  temporal  death,  but 
also  from  everlasting  destruction. 

'  Luther,  Comm.  in  Gal.,  c.  3,  13  (Opp.  Lat.,  t.  xxii.  p.  20):  Videamus  nunc, 
quomodo  in  hac  persona  duo  contraria  concurrant.  Invadunt  eum  non  solum 
mea,  tua,  sed  totius  mundi  peccata  prasterita,  prsesentia,  et  futura,  et  conantur 
eum  damnare,  sicut  etiam  damnant.  Sed  quia  in  eadem  ilia  persona  ...  est 
quoque  seterna  et  invicta  justitia,  ideo  congrediuntur  ilia  duo,  summum  et  maxi- 
mum et  solum  peccatum,  et  summa,  maxima,  et  sola  justitia.  Hie  alterum 
cedere  et  vinci  necessario  oportet,  cum  summo  impetu  concurrant  et  collidantur. 
.  .  .  Ideo  necesse  est  in  hoc  duello  vinci  et  occidi  peccatum,  et  justitiam  vincere  et 
vivere.  Sic  in  Christo  vincitur,  occiditur  et  sepelitur  universum  peccatum,  et 
manet  victrix  et  regnatrix  justitia  in  setemum. 

^  Edgar,  Philosophy  of  the  Cross,  p.  314  slqq. 


g6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST, 

No  form  of  indignity  is  spared  Hijn,  which  is  connected 
with  that  mode  of  death  in  itself  most  shameful  ;  and  yet  is 
His  pillar  of  infamy  and  tree  of  the  curse  in  the  eyes  of  God 
the  sacred  altar  of  sacrifice  of  the  New  Covenant,  the  throne 
of  dominion  and  the  emblem  of  victory  in  the  Messianic 
kingdom  !  Mockery  and  blasphemy,  opprobrium  and  scorn, 
are  more  abundantly  lavished  upon  Him  than  upon  any 
crucified  one.  With  the  spittle  of  the  ungodly  is  His  coun- 
tenance defiled  (Matt.  xxvi.  Sy  ;  Mark  xiv.  65)  ;  the  purple 
robe,  the  sceptre,  and  crown,  insignia  of  royalty,  are  mock- 
ingly thrust  upon  Him,  in  order  to  bring  into  derision 
His  frank  confession  as  King  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
(Matt,  xxvii.  28,  and  parallels).  To  the  kingly  purple  robe 
of  Pilate's  warriors,  Herod  in  contumely  adds  the  glittering 
white  raiment,  symbol  of  His  candidature  for  Israel's  throne 
(Luke  xxiii.  ii).  The  combined  mockery  of  both  authori- 
ties, the  Jewish  and  the  Gentile,  who  as  His  persecutors  have 
from  being  enemies  become  friends,  accompanies  Him  up  to 
the  place  of  execution.  Even  while  hanging  on  the  cross  He 
must  support  the  ignominy  of  the  accusing  superscription 
above  His  head  (John  xix.  19,  and  parallels),  the  shame  of 
nakedness  and  of  the  dividing  of  His  garments  by  lot  on  the 
part  of  the  rude  mercenaries  (Matt,  xxvii.  35,  and  parallels),^ 
the  bitter  vexation  of  the  myrrh-draught  presented  by  the 
hands  of  the  executioners  (Matt,  xxvii.  34),^  the  raillery  of 
the  passers-by  and  of  the  priests  and  scribes  standing  near 
Him  (Matt,  xxvii.  39,  41  f.),  and  the  reviling  of  one  of  the 

'  In  what  manner  the  brutal  custom  of  stripping  off  and  portioning-out  the 
garments  of  those  crucified  might  further  supply  the  occasion  for  frivolous  jests  at 
the  expense  of  the  unfortunate  beings  hanging  naked  on  the  cross — or  at  best 
covered  only  with  a  cloth  around  the  loins — is  shown  by  a  witticism  of  Artemi- 
dorus  {Oneit'ocreit.,  ii.  61)  :  "To  be  crucified  is  a  piece  of  good  fortune  for  the 
poor,  since  he  is  exalted  by  the  cross ;  but  a  misfortune  for  the  rich,  since  he  is 
crucified  naked." — That  the  denudation  of  the  cruciarii  was  not  an  absolute  one, 
and  that  it  did  not  take  place  in  the  case  of  all  without  exception,  is  shown  in 
Appendix  VI.,  No.  4. 

^  Hengstenberg,  Vorlesungen  fiber  die  Leidensgeschichte  (Leipzig,  1875),  S.  250  : 
"  Presented  to  the  transgressors,  the  draught  was  a  kindness  ;  presented  to  incar- 
nate righteousness  in  His  sufferings,  it  was  a  severe  and  bitter  indignity." 


ACCORDING   TO    THE    GOSPELS.  97 

malefactors  crucified  at  His  side  (Luke  xxiii.  39).  He  endures 
all  this  as  the  Redeemer  of  the  world,  as  the  gracious  High 
Priest  of  the  Church  purchased  unto  salvation  with  His 
blood,  as  the  royal  Victor  over  the  powers  of  darkness, 
through  whose  sufferings — ^just  where  they  reach  the  ex- 
tremity of  being  forsaken  by  God,  and  of  the  gloomy  night 
of  death — the  beams  of  His  unquenchable  life-sun  breaking 
forth  shed  a  radiance  of  glory.  His  death  ensues  as  an 
event  accelerated  with  miraculous  rapidity,  which — occur- 
ring within  a  few  hours  of  the  nailing  to  the  cross — delivers 
at  once  from  an  existence  otherwise  continued,  spite  of 
wounds  and  tortures,  through  long  wearisome  days.  He 
dies,  being  put  to  death  as  to  the  flesh,  but  made  alive  as 
to  the  spirit  (i  Peter  iii.  18),  entering  into  Paradise  in  the 
power  of  an  imperishable  life  (Heb.  vii.  16;  Luke  xxiii.  43  ; 
Eph.  iv.  8,  f.),  by  the  energy  of  His  world-moving  power  and 
love  obtaining  even  for  His  lifeless  body  on  the  cross  pro- 
tection from  rudely  mutilating  ill-treatment  and  shelter  in  a 
secure  resting-place  (John  xix.  31  ff.;  Matt,  xxvii.  57  ff.,  and 
parallels).  He  for  whom  was  designed  the  end  of  a  mean 
slave,  of  a  common  transgressor,  dies  the  death  of  a  king, 
testified  to  as  a  Divine  kingly  ruler  even  before  His  end  by 
the  prayer  of  the  penitent  thief,  and  in  His  end  by  the  con- 
fession of  the  Roman  centurion  (Matt,  xxvii.  54 ;  Luke  xxiii. 
42),  but  yet  more  gloriously  testifying  of  Himself  in  His 
last  words  upon  the  cross,  the  unspeakably  consolatory  legacy 
to  His  Church  of  the  King  of  heaven  now  entering  into 
glory,  the  sevenfold  glorious  proclamation  of  the  near  com- 
pletion of  His  work  of  salvation. 

In  the  SEVEN  WORDS  ON  THE  CROSS  we  see  shadowed  forth 
most  gloriously  and  most  profoundly  that  which  was  experi- 
enced by  the  God-man  in  the  hours  of  His  suffering,  and  that 
which  this  suffering  signifies  in  relation  to  God  and  in  rela- 
tion to  the  world.  They  form  the  true  point  of  culmination^ 
the  most  touching  and  affecting  expression  of  the  Messianic 
self-consciousness,  so  far  as  the  work  of  atonement  is  con- 
cerned.    They  are  the  superscription  which  God,  for  the  faith 

7 


98  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  the  Church,  has  placed  above  the  Crucified  One ;  even  as 
Pilate's  title  was  the  human  superscription  for  the  outward 
eye  of  Jew  and  Gentile.     To  the  seven  petitions  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  as  the  sum  of  all  praying  and  longing  after  truth, 
correspond  the  seven  words  upon  the  cross,  as  the  sum  of  all 
truth  itself^     They  disclose  to  us  immediately  in  a  first  series 
of  cries  of  the  heavily  afflicted  One — a  sacred  tetrade — the 
relations    His   sufferings    bear   towards    humanity :    to   the 
totality    of    those   combined    against    Him    in   hatred   and 
mockery,  whose  raging  does  not  prevent  Him  praying  for 
them  as  the  objects  of  His  high-priestly  work  of  expiation 
(Luke  xxiii.  34)  ;  His  relation  to  the  one  sinner  who  repents, 
whose  blessed  entrance  into  the  heavenly  kingdom  He  con- 
solingly promises  (Luke  xxiii.  43)  ;  to  those  specially  nearly 
connected  with  Him  by  the  bonds  of  outward  community  of 
life,  whose  temporal  well-being   occupies  His   loving   heart 
even  amidst  the  most  violent  pangs  (John  xix.  26  f.)  ;  and, 
yet  once  more,  to  the  totality  of  those  who  had  risen  up 
against  Him,  to  the  world  of  sinners,  whose  froward  oppo- 
sition He  answers  with  nothing  but  a  touching  cry  of  grief, 
in  which,  still  more  than  the  longing  for  the  mitigation  of 
His  bodily  sufferings,  seems  to   find  expression    the   thirst 
for  the  salvation  of  the  lost  and  erring.     Introduced  by  this 
plaintive  cry  of  thirst.  His  "  last  appeal  to  the  sympathy  of 
mankind,"  ^  the  second  series  of  cries  arising  from  the  cross, 
the   concluding  triad,  is   now  directed    exclusively  to  God, 
He  who — as  the  Atoner  for  sin,  the  Substitute  bearing  in 
place  of  others  the  weight  of  the  Divine  wrath,  wrapped  in 
the  terrible  gloom  of  being  forsaken  of  God — pours  forth,  at 
the  very  hour  when  also  an  external  darkness  begins,  to  the 
terror  of  men,  to  veil  the  earth  around,  His  cry  of  anguish  and 
dismay ;   but  hereby  proclaims  to  us  the  unspeakably  con- 
solatory fact  that  the  guilt  has  been  expiated  in  our  place, 

'  Mackay,  as  before,  p.  31  :  As  the  seven  petitions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  are 
the  summation  of  all  request,  so  these_  seven  words  are  the  summation  of  all 
truth,  etc. 

*  "  His  last  appeal  to  humanity,"    Ibid.,  p.  144;  cp.  p.  150. 


ACCORDING    TO    THE    APOSTOLIC    WRITINGS.  99 

the  price  of  redemption  has  been  paid  for  us,  unto  the  utter- 
most farthing  (Matt,  xxvii.  46  ;  Mark  xv.  34).  Only  for  a 
little  while  endures  the  dread  dismay  of  His  desolation  :  then, 
not  as  one  who  has  sunk  into  the  depths  of  despair,  but 
as  one  who  has  risen  to  the  height  of  an  ever  indissoluble 
communion  with  God,  He  raises  already  the  glorious  cry  of 
victory  (John  xix.  30),  which,  with  the  quieter  language  of 
prayer,  out  of  the  Psalter  (Luke  xxiii.  46  ;  Psalm  xxxi.  5),  im- 
diately  succeeding  it,  proclaims  the  completion  of  the  august 
work  of  salvation.  The  speedy  return  of  the  Saviour  who 
had  entered  Paradise,  to  the  bodily  tabernacle  forsaken  only 
for  a  short  time  ;  the  glorious  arising  of  the  faithful  Shepherd 
who  received  power  to  take  His  life  ag3.in,  even  as  He  had 
laid  it  down ;  the  proud  succession  of  self-testimonies  of  the 
Risen  One  during  the  forty  days  of  His  glorious  life  ;  the 
final  entrance  into  the  heavenly  glory  of  the  eternal  throne 
at  the  right  hand  of  God  :  all  this  is  seen  to  be  consolingly 
guaranteed  in  the  last  words  of  the  Lamb  of  God  offered 
up  upon  the  cross,  and  prophesied  too  as  the  necessary  con- 
sequence of  His  self-surrender  unto  death. 

With  the  utterances  of  the  Lord  Himself  are  associated 
those  of  the  disciples,  by  way  of  explanation  and  confirma- 
tion. We  shall  thus,  in  the  second  place,  consider  the 
cross  and  the  death  of  the  cross,  in  the  light  of  the  Apostolic 
discourses  and  writitia^s. 


B.    ACCORDING   TO    THE    TESTIMONY  OF  THE  APOSTOLIC 
DISCOURSES  AND    WRITINGS. 

If  we  contemplate  the  cross  in  this  light,  we  see  everywhere 
prominently  apparent  the  same  main  line  of  thought  with 
regard  to  the  absolutely  typical,  the  priestly  atoning,  and  the 
kingly  transforming  and  consummating  significance  of  this 
centre  of  the  redeeming  activity  of  Christ ;  yet  in  such  wise, 
that  the  relations  of  this  saving  fact  to  its  prophetic  pre- 
announcement  under  the  Old  Covenant  on  the  one  hand,  and 


lOO  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

to  the  life  of  the   New  Testament  Church  in    the   present 
and  the  future  on  the  other,  are  brought  out  much  more  fully, 
and  more  in  detail,  than  in  the  Gospels.     And  especially  in 
this  is  the  Apostolic  proclamation  of  the  cross  distinguished 
from  the  Evangelic-Messianic,  that  it  everywhere  and  always 
views  the  sufferings  of  the  Lord  upon  the  cross  in  the  glorifying 
light  of  that  resurrection  and  exaltation  to  the  right  hand  of 
God,  by  ivhich  they  were  followed.     No  Apostle  speaks  other- 
wise of  the  cracified   Saviour,  than  as  penetrated  with  the 
sense  of  His  mighty  and   loving  presence,  as  the   Lord   of 
Glory  with  the  heavenly  Father  in  the  Holy  Spirit  reigning, 
and  returning  to  judgment  upon  the  whole  world.     To  be 
"  witnesses  of  the  resurrection,"  they  all  alike  regard  as  the 
special  task  of  their  lives,  the  purport  of  their  whole  Apostolic 
ministry.     So  already  in  the  days  of  the  Ascension  and  the 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit  (Acts  i.  22  ;  ii.  32;   iii.  15  ;  iv.  33  ; 
v.  32),  so  through  all  the  stadia  of  the  Petrine  and  Pauline 
labour,  up  to  the  high-priestly  ministrations  of  the  Apostle  of 
love  at  Ephesus  (Acts  x.  40  ;  xvii.  18  ;    i  Peter  i.  3,  11  ;  iii. 
18  ff.  ;  V.  I  ;  Rom.  iv.  25  ;  viii.  34  ;  i  Cor.  xv.  i  ff.;  Rev.  i.  5; 
John    XX.    30  f.)      And   in   intimate  connection   with   their 
testimony    concerning    the    power    of   the    resurrection,   do 
they  with  one  accord  speak  of  the  sin-expiating  sacrificial 
death,  upon  which  this  miracle  of  miracles  served  to  impress 
the  Divine  seal,  of  the  bliss-giving  mystery  of  that  blood  of 
sprinkling,  through  which  all_  who  believe  receive  a  cleansing 
from  their  sins,  and  an  entrance  into  everlasting  blessedness. 

It  is  true  a  deeper  speculative  penetration  into  the  mystery 
of  redemption  is  still  to  some  extent  wanting  in  the  discourses 
of  those  disciples  standing  during  the  years  immediately 
succeeding  the  Lord's  Ascension  in  the  foreground  of  the 
Apostolic  history,  a  Peter,  a  Stephen,  a  Philip,  a  James. 
They  contemplate  the  death  of  Jesus,  the  holy  Servant  of 
God,  specially  in  its  historical,  rather  than  its  soteriological- 
doctrinal  aspect  (Acts  ii.  23,  26;  iii.  13  ff. ;  iv.  10  f. ;  x.  39), 
and  they  lay  stress  less  upon  the  inner  necessity  in  connection^ 
with  the  history  of  redemption,  than  upon  the  character  of 


ACCORDING   TO    THE    APOSTOLIC   WRITINGS.  lOI 

His  sufferings  as  predetermined  in  accordance  with  Divine 
revelation,  and  predicted  in  accordance  with  the  testimony 
of  Scripture  (Acts  ii.  23  ;  iii.  18  ;  iv.  28  ;  v.  32  ;  viii.  35  f  ; 
XV.  15  ff)  Even  at  a  later  period,  some  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  this  form  of  primitive  Christianity,  still  as 
yet  bearing  a  preponderatingly  Jewish-Christian  colouring, 
remain  without  advancing  beyond  such  standpoint  of  a 
less  developed  Christology.  James,  especially,  speaks 
indeed  in  his  epistle  of  the  kingly  glory  and  coming  to 
judgment  of  the  exalted  Saviour  (James  i.  i,  7  ;  ii.  i  ;  v.  8  f.) ; 
but  of  His  priestly  reconciling  and  expiatory  work,  He 
nowhere  makes  express  mention.  PETER,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  see  in  his  epistles,  written  without  doubt  a  considerable 
period  after  his  labours  in  Jerusalem,  and  not  so  very  long  before 
his  death  by  martyrdom,  not  only  delineating  the  history  of 
the  Lord's  sufferings  from  their  outward  side,  the  salvation- 
bringing  succession  of  suffering  and  exaltation  (i  Peter  i.  11  ; 
iv.  13  ;  v.  I,  10),  with  wondrously  penetrating  power  and 
vividness  (ii.  21  ff.;  iii.  18  ff ) ;  but  also  developing  the  more 
profound  bearings  and  import  of  the  Messianic  sufferings 
and  death,  as  ideally  fulfilling  and  taking  the  place  of  the 
sacrificial  ritual  of  the  Old  Testament  (i  Peter  i,  2,  18  f),  as 
washing  and  cleansing  away  the  sin  of  the  world, — yea,  as 
extending  its  operation  of  blessing  even  into  the  depths  of 
the  kingdom  of  the  departed  (i  Peter  iii.  19  ff. ;  cp.  also 
2  Peter  ii.  i  ;  i.  16  ff ) 

Yet  more  abundantly,  and  with  more  majectic  exultation 
of  faith  {plerophoria),  does  the  Apostle  Paul  unfold  the 
blessed  contents  of  the  gladdening  mystery  of  the  cross. 
For  him,  from  his  youth  up  a  zealous  Pharisee,  who  so  long 
as  he  knew  Christ  only  after  the  flesh,  must  necessarily 
receive  the  bitterest  offence  from  His  death  on  the  cross 
(i  Cor.  i.  23  ;  Gal.  v.  11  ;  vi.  12),  the  word  of  the  cross 
became  the  most  vital  centre  of  an  animated  testimony  of 
faith,  and  of  an  ever  self-consuming  zeal  of  ministering  love, 
from  the  time  he  saw  the  Crucified  as  the  Risen  One  in 
heavenly   glory.      The   cross   of  Calvary   appeared   to   him 


102  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

henceforth  as  the  foundation  of  all  liberty  and  the  beginning 
of  all  salvation  and  blessedness  (Rom.  x.  4 ;  i  Cor.  i.  18  fif.  ; 
ii.  2).  It  became  for  him  "  the  lever  which  lifted  the  law 
out  of  its  place  ; "  the  expiatory  death  of  the  God-man 
thereon  accomplished,  "the  means  of  procuring  a  righteous- 
ness entirely  new  ; "  the  Crucified  One  Himself  the  absolute 
and  eternal  reconciliation  between  flesh  and  spirit,  between 
man  and  God, — yea,  on  this  very  account  "  the  incarnate 
principle  of  sonship  with  God,  the  pre-existent  man  from 
heaven,  by  communion  of  Spirit  with  whom  we  become 
partakers  of  a  new  life  from  God."^  With  that  wondrous 
dialectic  acumen  and  plastic  art  of  representation,  which 
is  without  an  equal  in  the  circle  of  the  Apostolic  writers, 
he  develops  out  of  the  one  idea  of  the  Saviour's  death  on 
the  cross  of  the  curse  (Gal.  iii.  13)  the  whole  infinitely 
varied  contents  of  his  Christology,  the  whole  "  cross-wise 
formed  relation  of  the  deepest  humiliation  and  loftiest 
exaltation  of  the  two  opposite  natures."^  The  doctrine  of 
the  threefold  import  of  the  redeeming  death  as  a  death  of 
the  highest  exemplary  significance  for  our  walk  in  the  new 
obedience  (Rom.  v.  19 ;  vi.  3  f. ;  Gal.  iv.  4  ;  Phil.  ii.  8,  etc.),  a 
death  of  high-priestly  atoning  and  reconciling  efficacy  (Rom. 
iii.  24  fif. ;  v.  6 ;  Gal.  iii.  13  ;  Col.  ii.  14  ;  2  Cor.  v.  18  ff.),  a 
death  of  royal  power  of  blessing  and  everlasting  salvation 
and peace-brijtging  sigm^cdince  (Acts  xx.  28  ;  Ephes.  ii.  13  ff.  ; 
Coloss.  i.  20  ff. ;  I  Cor.  x.  16;  xi.  25)  is  presented  by  him, 
as  regards  its  essence  in  perfect  agreement  with  Peter,  but 
yet  much  more  deeply,  with  more  abundant  plastic  power  of 
the  imagination,  and  with  a  much  more  imposing  breadth 
of  view.  For  Peter,  it  is  the  tree  on  which  the  Lord  hung 
(i  Peter  ii.  24;  Acts  ii.  23  ;  v.  30  ;  x.  39)  ;^  for  Paul,  the  cross 

'  O.  Pfleiderer,  Z>«- /(f^?//^««w^«  (Leipzig,  1873). 

2  Haniann,  Werke,  Bd.  vii.  S.  127  (edit.  Rothe). 

■''  Only  once  (in  Acts  iv.  10, — the  address  before  the  Great  Council) — does  Peter 
speak  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  .  .  .  Sv  u/aets  ia-ravpuxTaTe  ;  in  every  other  case  he 
employs  the  less  definite  expression  "  tree,"  ^ijXov.  Conversely  the  latter  term 
occurs  in  Paul  only  twice  (Acts  xiii.  29  ;  Gal.  iii.  13)  ;  elsewhere  he  always  uses 
crravpds. 


ACCORDING    TO    THE    APOSTOLIC    WRITINGS.  IO3 

which,  pointing  at  the  same  time  to  the  heights  and  the 
depths,  the  length  and  the  breadth,  formed  the  emblem  of 
the  infinite  (Eph.  iii.  18),  to  which  ever  again  and  again  he 
refers  as  the  centre  and  essence,  the  foundation  and  corner- 
stone of  all  certainty  as  regards  salvation.^  For  Peter,  too. 
the  range  of  the  influence  of  this  redemptive  suffering  on 
the  cross  extends  indeed  down  into  hell  beneath,  and  up  to 
the  region  of  the  heavenly  angels  and  saints  above  (i  Peter 
iii.  19  ff. ;  i.  12  [at  the  end  of  the  verse];  comp.  Eph.  iv.  8  fif. ; 
Col.  i.  20  f. ;  Phil.  ii.  9  ff.) :  but  it  is  not  depicted  with  equally 
predominating  interest  as  with  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  as 
that  which  embraces  all  nations  of  the  earth,  as  encompassing 
Jew  and  Gentile  alike  with  its  fulness  of  blessing,  as  laying 
the  foundations  of  a  covenant  of  grace  which  extends  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  (Gal.  iii.  28  ;  Eph.  ii.  11  fif.  ;  Col.  i.  20  fif.  ; 
iii.  11).  On  this  very  account  Paul  is  so  far  from  being 
ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  presence  of  the  wise  of 
this  world,  for  this  very  reason  he  makes  his  boast  so  confi- 
dently and  so  fearlessly  of  his  message,  which  is  to  the  Jews 
an  ofifence  and  to  the  Greeks  a  folly  (Rom.  i.  16  f  ;  i  Cor. 
i.  23),  because  he  has  made  the  thousandfold  experience  that 
the  arms  stretched  forth  upon  the  cross  are  stretched  forth 
in  the  same  love  alike  to  circumcision  and  uncircumcision,  to 
Jew  and  Greek,  Barbarian,  Scythian,  Bond,  and  Free,  and 
that  the  power  of  compassion  in  the  faithful  Saviour's  heart 
is  able  also  to  melt  the  obdurate  resistance  of  unbelieving 
human  hearts.     It  is  more  than  an  idealising  of  certain  Old 

'  Even  though  the  famous  passage,  Eph.  iii.  18,  which  has  been  from  ancient 
times  so  very  frequently  explained  in  reference  to  the  cross,  vi'ith  its  four  ends,  was 
not  written  with  a  conscious  reference  to  this  four-armed  symbol  of  redemption — 
and  any  definite  hint  in  favour  of  such  reference  is  certainly  wanting  alike  in  the 
words  themselves  as  in  the  context — yet  it  can  assuredly  be  adduced  as  an  indirect 
evidence  for  the  majestic  breadth  and  fulness  of  the  conceptions  regarding  the 
history  of  salvation  attached  by  Paul  to  the  cross  of  Jesus.  The  ' '  metaphysical 
greatness"  of  the  love  of  the  crucified  Saviour  is  in  the  deeply  affected  mind 
of  the  Apostle,  by  virtue  of  his  vividly  enkindled  imagination,  regarded  as  a 
^^physical-mathematical  "  greatness,  "  extending  on  every  side  "  (Meyer). — On  the 
history  of  the  exposition  of  these  remarkable  words  and  of  their  Old  Testament 
representatives.  Job  xi.  8,  9  ;  Psalm  cxsxix.  8,  9,  see  below,  Appendix  VII. 


I04  THE   CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Testament  religious  ideas,  more  than  a  mysticism  of  subjec- 
tive pious  emotions  of  the  heart,  which  is  developed  on  the 
ground  of  this  vitally  experienced  communion  of  salvation 
with  the  Crucified  and  Risen  One,  He  "  became  the  creator 
of  a  philosophy  of  history  which  has  its  centre  in  the  cross  of 
Christ,"^  and  the  fundamental  thoughts  of  this  philosophy 
of  history  include  the  eternally  unalterable  norms  of  all  true 
philosophy  of  history  in  general,  the  cognition  of  that 
"  wisdom  of  God  in  a  mystery,  the  hidden  wisdom,  which 
God  ordained  before  the  world  unto  our  glory,"  and  com- 
pared with  which  all  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  and  of  the 
princes  of  this  world,  is  nothing  but  folly  (i  Cor.  ii.  6  ff.) 

For  the  very  reason  that  the  idea  of  a  comprehensive 
historic-philosophic  speculation,  starting  from  the  cross  of 
Christ  as  its  centre,  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  peculiar  spiritual 
greatness  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  and  precisely 
because  this  very  idea,  so  fruitful  and  so  strongly  marked  by 
genius,  is  much  less  easily  recognised  in  the  other  Apostles 
and  New  Testament  writers,  one  might  feel  tempted  to  attach 
an  absolute — rather  than  relative — importance  to  Paul,  at  the 
expense  of  his  fellow-cjisciples  ;  yea,  even  to  extol  him  as 
strictly  speaking  the  "  spiritual  creator  of  Christianity,"  to 
the  genius  of  whom  the  Lord  Himself,  the  lowly  rabbi  of 
Nazareth,  does  not  attain.^  But,  apart  from  the  fact  that 
Paul  would  oppose  to  tJiis  attempt  also  to  make  an  idol  of 
his  name,  an  indignant  "  What !  was  Paul  then  crucified  for 
you  ? "  ^  all  such  isolating  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  from 
his  fellow-disciples  is  seen  to  be  untenable.  For  the  word  of 
the  cross  is  just  as  much  their  Gospel  as  his.  If  they  other- 
wise denominate  it,  and  clothe  it  in  a  series  of  ideas  some- 

'  Carriere,  Die  Kunst,  etc.,  iii.  I,  S.  24. 

'  So  notably  E.  v.  Hartmann  ("  Das  Christenthum  Christi"  in  "die  Literatur," 
1874  ;  also  in  his  "  Selbstzersetzung  des  Christenthums "),  who  regards  the 
historic-philosophic  speculation  sprung  from  the  genius  of  Paul,  this  beginning  of 
all  Christian  philosophy  and  science  whatever,  as  no  doubt  a  falsification  of  the 
Christianity  of  Christ,  but  pays  the  tribute  of  greater  admiration  to  the  author  of 
this  falsification  than  to  Christ  Himself.     Similarly  also  v.  Hellwald,  Culturgesch., 

S.  389  ff- 

'  I  Cor.  i.  13.     (Luther's  version.) 


ACCORDING    TO '■THE   APOSTOLIC    WRITINGS.  I05 

what  differing  from  his,  yet — Apostles  of  the  cross  are  they 
all,  even  as  he.  The  writer,  too,  of  the  Epistle  to  THE 
Hebrews  describes  the  ideal  and  exalted  kingly  high- 
priesthood  of  Christ  in  traits  which  in  reality  exactly  corre- 
spond to  the  Pauline  testimony  of  the  Crucified  and  Risen 
One  (Heb.  i.  3  ;  iv.  14  ff. ;  v.  i  ff.  ;  vii.  i  ff.  ;  ix.  14  ff.) 
And  once  at  least  he  expressly  makes  mention  of  the  sacred 
altar  of  this  high-priesthood — an  altar  inaccessible  for  those 
servants  of  the  law  "  who  minister  in  the  tabernacle  " — and 
this  in  words  which  scarcely  admit  of  a  doubt  that  the  altar 
of  the  cross  on  Calvary,  the  place  of  the  for  ever  completed 
sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God,  is  thereby  intended  (Heb.  xiii. 
10).^  John,  however,  the  disciple  of  love,  who  remained  at 
the  foot  of  the  cross  until  the  last  breath  of  the  Saviour,  the 
eye-witness  of  that  stream  of  water  and  of  blood,  which  the 
spear-thrust  in  the  side  of  the  already  departed  One  drew 
forth  (John  xix.  34;  i  John  v.  6),  in  his  animated  testimonies 
concerning  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  propitiation  for 
the  sins  of  the  whole  world  (i  John  i.  7;  ii.  2 ;  iv.  10), 
extends  in  brotherly  spirit  the  right  hand  of  communion  to 
the  Apostle  of  the  cross.  Not  only  as  Apostle  and  Evange- 
list, but  also  as  the  Spirit-anointed  prophetic  Seer  of  the  New 
Testament,  does  he  testify  to  the  cleansing  power  of  the 
blood  shed  upon  Calvary,  the  blood  of  "  the  Lamb  that  was 
slain  "  (Rev.  v.  6 ;  vii.  14 ;  xiii.  8  ;  comp.  i.  5  ;  v.  9  ;  xiv.  3). 
The  sacred  name  of  the  Lamb,  which,  according  to  the 
symbolic  description  in  Rev.  xiv.  i  ;  xxii.  4,  shall  shine 
resplendent  upon  the  foreheads  of  the  servants  of  God,  what 
else  could  it  be  but  the  sign  of  the  cross — the  original  and 
ideal  of  that  prophecy  of  Ezekiel  concerning  the  delivering 

^  For  this  explanation  of  the  ^x^f^^"  Ovataarripiov,  k.t.\.,  which  since  the 
time  of  Thomas  Aquinas  has  gradually  become  the  prevailing  one,  the  fact  is 
decisive  that  the  author  in  what  immediately  follows  comes  to  speak  of  the  place 
of  execution  "without  the  camp,"  i.e.,  without  the  City  of  God  of  the  O.  T. 
(ver.  II — 13).  Hardly  thus  can  Christ  Himself  be  intended  as  the  spiritual  altar  of 
Christians  (Mich.,  Stier,  Thol.,  Hofm.)  The  reference  to  the  Communion  Tdble 
(Bohme,  Bahr,  Bisp.,  Ebrard)  is  certainly  justified  as  a  secondary  application, 
Comp.  Bengel,  Bleek,  De  Wette,  Delitzsch  m  loc. 


I06  THE   CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Tau,  the  bright  counterpart  to  the  dark  symbol  of  the  beast 
upon  the  foreheads  of  the  lost  (Rev.  xvi.  2  ;  xx.  4)  ?  ^ 

Even  more  distinct  than  the  doctrinal  and  prophetic  testi- 
mony of  the  Apostles  are  their  Church-founding  labours  and 
sufferings — sufferings  which  impress  upon  them  in  their 
totality,  and  not  upon  Paul  alone,  the  stamp  of  heralds  of  the 
word  of  the  cross.  The  taking  up  and  bearing  of  the  cross 
of  Jesus  in  its  literal,  terrible  reality — the  "cross"  being  under- 
stood in  the  wider  general  sense  of  the  vai'ia  genera  crucis 
of  Seneca — fell  indeed  to  the  lot  of  but  few  among  them.^ 
And  cross-bearers  of  a  type  affording  an  everlasting  model, 
glorious  heroes  in  lowly  following  after  the  Crucified,  were 
they  all,  even  those  who  were  not  decked  with  the  purple  of 
the  Martyr's  death.  Even  though  Paul,  the  man  who  thrice 
received  forty  stripes  save  one,  thrice  was  beaten  with  rods, 
once  was  stoned,  and  more  than  thrice  suffered  shipwreck 
(2  Cor.  xi.  24,  25),  may  have  had  a  right  above  others  to 
speak  of  himself  as  a  bearer  of  "the  dying  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,"  or  to  make  mention  of  his  scars  (2  Cor.  iv.  10;  Gal. 
vi,  17) :  in  regard  to  their  inner  willingness  and  readiness  of 
heart,  they  were  all  of  them  "  bearers  of  the  marks  "  in  spirit 
and  in  truth ;  whom  no  saint  of  the  following  ages  of  Christi- 
anity, and  none  of  those  stigma-bearers  of  whom  the  Romish 
Church  is  so  proud,  even  distantly  approaches.  The  Apostolic 
Church  is  the  true  Church  of  the  Cross,  the  prototype  of  all 
martyr-churches  and  communions  of  the  cross  in  later  Chris- 
tian history.  What  it  is  to  follow  Christ  upon  the  way  of  His 
passion,  what  it  is  joyfully  to  drink  of  His  cup  and  to  be 
baptised  with  His  baptism,  must  for  all  ages  be  studied  in 
this  Church,  and  in  this  Church  ever  anew.     Just  as  the  right 

'  Compare  Doiner,  Entwicklnngsgesch.  der  Lehre  v.  d.  I^erson  Christi,  I.  S. 
291,  not.  231. 

^  As  being  actually  crucified,  tradition  mentions,  in  addition  to  Peter,  who  was 
nailed  to  the  cross  with  his  head  downwards  (Euseb.,  H.  E.,  iii.  i),  also  the  Ap. 
Bartholomew,  who  is  said  to  have  been  crucified  and  then  flayed  alive  in  Armenia 
or  Albania,  by  order  of  Prince  Astayages;  and  Philip,  who  it  is  alleged  was  bound 
to  a  cross  and  stoned  at  Hierapolis  in  Phrygia,  under  Domitian.  {^Mart.  Rom., 
Baronius,  etc.) 


ACCORDING    TO    THE    APOSTOLIC    WRITINGS.  10/ 

apportioning  of  the  preaching  of  the  Crucified,  the  testifying 
to  the  kernel  of  the  Gospel  verity  in  full  power,  the  victorious 
displaying  and  bringing  forth  of  the  banner  of  the  cross,  the 
banner  which  invites  to  enter  the  gates  of  salvation,  is  to  be 
learnt  from  their  records,  and  from  their  records  alone. 

One  might  attempt  to  present  a  grouping  of  the  leading 
representatives  of  the  Apostolate  according  to  their  several 
types  of  doctrine  and  other  characteristic  peculiarities,  in  such 
wise  that  they — the  most  prominent  figures  in  the  earliest 
communion  under  the  cross — should  also  externally  display 
the  figure  of  a  cross,  and  so  immediately  typify  the  sacrificial 
altar  upon  Calvary.  Much  might  be  said  in  justification  of 
such  a  combining  of  the  five  principal  types  of  the  Apostolic 
individuality  in  teaching,  according  to  which  Peter  would 
represent  the  foot,  the  firm  root  of  the  stem  of  the  cross, 
John  the  towering,  heavenward-soaring  apex  of  the  same, 
James  and  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (each  of 
these  in  combination  with  his  nearest  spiritual  kinsmen :  the 
former  thus  with  Jude  and  Matthew,  the  latter  with  Luke)  the 
right  and  the  left  end  of  the  transverse  beam,  while  Paul 
would  occupy  the  bright  central  position,  at  the  point  of 
juncture  of  the  two  arms.^  We  refrain,  in  order  not  to  expose 
ourselves  to  the  charge  of  being  occupied  with  a  mystic  play 
of  fancy  without  any  scriptural  basis,  from  a  fuller  exposition 
of  this  thought.  Nevertheless  we  very  decidedly  maintain 
that  the  Church  of  the  Apostolic  age,  together  with  its  sacred 

'  Somewhat  differently  does  F.  Godet,  in  his  interesting  study  on  "  the  four 
principal  Apostles,"  [Studies on  the N.  T.,  Engl.  tr. :  Hodder  and  Stoughton,  1877,] 
group  the  four  leading  types  of  doctrine  among  the  Apostles.  He  treats  that  of 
Peter,  the  Apostle  of  the  Doxa,  as  the  common  ground  and  starting-point ;  from 
this  point  represents  the  opposition  of  principles  between  James  and  Paul,  the 
Apostle  of  good  works  and  the  Apostle  of  the  righteousness  of  faith,  as  developing 
itself ;  but  John,  the  Apostle  of  the  Divine  life  in  love,  as  forming  the  crowning 
close  of  the  whole.  We  miss  in  connection  with  this  arrangement  the  due  place 
of  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  to  whom  in  the  history  of  the 
development  of  the  peculiar  doctrinal  types  of  the  New  Testament,  certainly  no 
less  degree  of  significance  can  be  attached  than,  e.g.,  to  James.  It  seems  to  us, 
moreover,  that  for  Paul  must  be  claimed  a  more  decisively  central  position  than  is 
the  case  in  this  arrangement  of  Godet. 


I08  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

records  of  revelation,  was  inwardly  and  in  a  spiritual  manner 
consecrated  with  the  mark  of  the  emblem  of  redemption,  and 
glorified  by  its  lustre ;  and  thus  that  no  later  age  of  Christi- 
anity has  taught  more  purely  and  accurately  concerning  the 
signification  of  this  emblem,  or  has  exercised  itself  in  a  more 
hallowing  and  blessing-giving  use  of  the  same. 


I09 


III. 

IN  the  immediate  post-Apostolic  age,  up  to  the  end  of  the 
persecutions  under  Constantine,  there  is  apparent,  indeed, 
in  many  respects  a  diminution  of  the  original  purity  and 
strength  of  the  primitive  Christian  life  in  the  Spirit.  But 
yet  there  still  glows,  beneath  the  ashes  of  a  mind  and  habit 
more  conformed  to  the  world,  which  has  settled  over  it,  the 
fire  of  the  first  love;  and  so  often  as  the  storms  of  persecution 
raise  this  veiling  cover,  or  for  a  considerable  period  remove 
it,  the  original  brightness  shines  forth  clearly  once  more. 
The  Church  continues,  thanks  to  the  severity  of  the  Divine 
discipline,  in  the  fellowship  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ ;  she 
on  this  account  experiences  and  testifies  most  abundantly 
to  the  power  of  His  resurrection  (Phil.  iii.  lo).  Christendom 
remains  the  community  of  the  cross,  her  whole  consciousness 
and  life  hallowed  and  glorified  by  the  impress  of  the  sacred 
symbol  of  redemption.  Neither  are  there  wanting  fair  fruits 
of  this  her  life  of  faith  and  love — a  life  planted  with  Christ 
into  a  like  death,  and  abundantly  watered  by  the  blood  of 
her  own  martyrs.  But  they  are  fruits  of  modest  and  not 
always  brilliant  appearance — precious  in  the  sight  of  God, 
but  poor  and  contemptible  in  the  sight  of  the  world ;  not 
like  golden  apples  of  a  restored  Paradise,  and  yet  in  reality 
ripened  upon  the  Tree  of  Life,  anew  conferred  upon 
humanity.  The  bare,  lonely,  and  leafless  stem  of  the  cross 
of  Jesus — yet  infinitely  surpassing  all  the  trees  of  this  world 
in  ever-enduring  power  of  germination  and  fulness  of  life — 


no  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

bore  them  and  brought  them  to  maturity.  Not  in  the  houses 
of  kings,  or  the  halls  of  the  rich,  or  the  gardens  of  the  wise 
of  this  world,  did  the  shoots  and  offsets  of  this  wondrous  tree 
bring  forth  such  fruits ;  but  in  the  huts  of  the  poor  and  the 
lowly,  the  deserts  far  from  the  noise  of  cities,  the  subterra- 
nean meeting-places  of  those  persecuted  and  hunted  to  the 
chambers  of  the  dead.  It  is  the  Church  of  the  martyrs  and 
of  the  catacombs  which  presents  to  us  these  the  first-fruits 
of  the  primitive  Christian  spirit,  engrafting  itself  upon  the 
life  of  ancient  Greek  and  Roman  civilisation.  No  wonder 
that  they  are  redolent  of  the  air  of  the  catacombs,  and  that 
even  a  reading  of  the  accounts  of  these  battles  and  victories 
of  the  virgin  Christendom,  bleeding  with  a  thousand  wounds, 
merits  to  be  called  a  cross  for  the  spirit.  ^ 

The  bearing  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  as  of  a  yoke,  gentle 
indeed,  but  yet  deeply  bending  down  and  painfully  wounding, 
forms  the  most  salient  characteristic  of  the  peculiar  life  of 
primitive  Christianity  at  this  stage  of  its  development.  The 
whole  life  of  the  Church  of  the  martyrs  is  an  earnest  conflict 
in  the  service  of  the  Lord,' — a  conflict  involving  many  an 
arduous  struggle,  and  one  which  never  presses  on  to  victory 
save  through  much  bloodshed.  The  service  of  the  "  Warrior 
of  Christ,"  the  A£-oh  CJiristiamis,  as  Augustine,  on  the  ground 
of  I  Cor.  ix.  25  ;  i  Thess.  ii.  2  ;  Phil.  i.  30;  i  Tim.  vi,  12  ; 
2  Tim.  iv.  7,  etc.,  terms  him,  is  no  mere  play,  no  light  chil- 
dren's toil.  Full  many  of  these  soldiers  of  God  in  the  times 
of  severe  persecution,  from  Trajan  to  Dioclesian,  followed  the 
Lord  literally  to  the  cross,  or  even,  like  Peter,  were  crucified 
with  the  head  downwards.  This  latter  is  expressly  related 
by  Eusebius  of  several  Egyptian  martyrs  under  Dioclesian, 
as,  moreover,  by  the  Roman  Martyrologium  (certainly  a  much 
less  reliable  authority)  of  the  Cilician  martyr  Calliopius 
at  Pompeiopolis  (304),  and  of  a  youth  of  only  fifteen  years, 
named  Venantius,  under  the  emperor  Decius.^     That  bishop 

'  Kahnis,   Blicke  aus  der   Vergangenheit  in   die   Gegenwart  und  Ztikunft  der 
Kirche:  Allg,  ev.  luth.  K.-Ztg.,  1874,  No.  19. 

"^  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  viii.  8 ;  Martyr.  Rom.,  7  Apr.  and  8  May. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  I  I  I 

Symeon  of  Jerusalem,  the  son  of  Clopas,  suffered  martyr- 
dom by  crucifixion,  under  the  emperor  Trajan,  at  the  age 
of  a  hundred  and  twenty  years,  is  already  testified  by 
Hegesippus,^  Eusebius  states  of  Pionius  that  he  under- 
went at  Smyrna,  in  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  first 
"nailing  to  the  cross,"  and  then  "tortures  in  the  flames." 
Of  the  pious  female  slave  Blandina,  at  Lyons,  under  the 
same  emperor,  the  epistle  of  the  congregations  at  Lyons 
and  Vienne  relates  that  she  was  attached  in  the  form  of  a 
cross  to  a  block  of  wood,  and  exposed  to  wild  beasts  to  be 
torn  in  pieces.  Upon  the  Palestinean  martyr  Theodulus 
was  also,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Eusebius,  inflicted 
death  by  crucifixion.^  As  crucified,  the  Martyrologies  besides 
speak  of  the  bishop  Asteios  of  Dyrrachium  (under  Trajan), 
St.  Dionysius  (as  is  alleged,  under  Hadrian),  the  erewhile 
soldier  Alexander,  who  is  said  to  have  overturned  a  heathen 
sacrificial  table  in  presence  of  the  emperor  Antoninus ; 
Theodorus,  who  was,  it  is  asserted,  crucified  in  his  military 
garb  at  Perga  in  Pamphylia  (likewise  under  Antoninus), 
Farther,  as  belonging  to  the  Decian- Valerian  age  of  perse- 
cution: the  bishop  Nestor,  at  Perga  (251),  the  Roman  bishop 
Xystos,  or  Sistus  IL  (258);  the  pious  couple,  Timotheus  and 
Maura,  at  Thebes  in  Egypt  (circ.  250) ;  Arcadius  (as  is 
alleged  about  260).  During  the  reign  of  Aurelian :  Lucilianus 
at  Constantinople,  and  Philomenus  at  Ancyra  in  Galatia. 
During  the  great  age  of  persecution  under  Dioclesian :  the 
brothers  Marcianus  and  Marcus,  in  Egypt  (it  is  asserted  as 
early  as  287) ;  the  deacon  Apollonius,  at  Iconium  ;  the  aged 
Christians  Agricola  and  Vitalis,  at  Bologna ;  the  three  boys, 
Asterius,  Claudius,  and  Neon,  at  ^gae  in  Cilicia ;  the  two 
physicians,  Carpophorus  and  Leontius,  at  Aquileia,  both, 
as  is  alleged,  nailed  to  the  cross,  and  then  transfixed  with 
arrows ;  the  Cilician  parallels  of  these  two,  Cosmas  and 
Damian,  likewise  physicians,  and  likewise  upon  the  cross 
transfixed  with  arrows ;  Faustus,  at  Cordova,  who  is  said  to 

'  In  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  iii.  32. 

*  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  iv.  15,  47  ;  v.  I,  41  f.     De  Martyrib.  Palast.,  xi.  24. 


I  I  2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

have  been  exposed  to  the  same  kind  of  martyrdom ;  the 
Laodicean  martyrs  Thalus  and  Trophimus ;  Vincentius, 
roasted  upon  a  cross  over  the  flames,  at  Valentia  in  Spain 
(already  celebrated  in  song  by  Prudentius,  in  the  fifth 
hymn  of  his  Peristephaiioit)  ;  the  Pontian  Zoticus ;  the 
Spanish  maiden  Eulalia,  at  thirteen  years  of  age ;  Bene- 
dicta,  the  daughter  of  a  Gallic  councillor,  and  the  Syrian 
maiden  Sempronia  at  Sibapolis.  The  accounts  are  not 
very  definite  concerning  the  time  of  the  martyrdom  of 
the  Grecian  sisters  Martha  and  Mary,  or  of  the  Egyptian 
Lycarion,  who  likewise  are  said  to  have  suffered  death  upon 
the  cross.^  Not  a  few  of  these  alleged  martyrdoms  on  the 
cross — to  which  a  considerable  number  might  still  be  added 
from  the  post-Constantine  period  of  persecution,^  had  we  not 
to  regard  the  limits  imposed  upon  us  in  the  present  chapter — 
are,  perhaps  to  be  looked  upon  merely  as  products  of  the 
imagination  of  a  later  age  addicted  to  the  reverence  of 
the  martyrs.  Yet  even  in  such  creations  of  the  mythology 
of  the  early  Church  and  of  the  Middle  Ages  there  exists, 
apart  from  the  isolated  instances  of  faithful  historic  remi- 
niscence which  they  may  include,  the  general  and  underlying 
view — in  itself  unquestionably  a  just  one — of  an  extraordinary 
severity  and  cruelty  in  the  times  of  the  persecution  of  the 
early  Christians,  having  many  points  of  analogy  with  that  in 
the  sufferings  of  the  Lord.  As  an  indirect  confirmation  of 
our  designation  of  the  pre-Constantine  Church  as  one,  more 
than  the  Church  of  any  later  Christian  epoch,  characterised 
by  a  painful  following  of  the  cross,  an  Ecclesia  pressa  et  cru- 
ciata,  do  these  accounts  also,  albeit  to  a  great  extent  legen- 
dary, thus  at  any  rate  retain  their  value. 

'  On  the  martyrs  here  mentioned,  compare  the  splendid  hagiologic  work  of  the 
Jesuit  Barth.  Ricci :  Trmmphus  Jesu  Christi  criuifixi  (illustrated  with  plates  by- 
Adrian  CoUaert).  Antv.,  1614.  See  also  Wessely,  Iconographie  Goltes  und  der 
Heiligen,  and  Stadler  and  Heim,  in  the  Heiligenlexkon. 

2  Especially  belonging  to  the  time  of  the  great  Persian  persecution  of  the 
Christians,  under  Sapores  II.  (343 — 380),  in  which,  e.g.,  the  maiden  Tarbula, 
sister  of  the  bishop  Symeon  of  Seleucia,  as  also  another  maiden,  Gudelia,  etc., 
are  said  to  have  been  crucified.     (Wessely,  S.  212,  379.) 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  II3 

The  more  abundant  the  opportunity  thus  granted  to  these 
Christians  of  early  times  for  practical  exercise  of  the  com- 
munion of  suffering  with  their  Lord,  and  the  more  joyful 
their  readiness  to  enter  into  such  school  of  suffering — a 
readiness  which  stamped  upon  their  whole  life,  even  in 
those  times  which  were  not,  strictly  speaking,  times  of  per- 
secution, the  impress  of  a  "  dying  daily,"  a  "  constant  martyr- 
dom,"^— so  much  the  more  spiritual  in  its  nature  remained 
their  devotion  to  the  Crucified,  so  much  the  less  could  a 
tendency  to  a  false  externalism  and  an  ethnicising  degenera- 
tion of  their  religious  life  already  gain  with  them  the  upper 
hand.  Of  a  properly  so-called  WORSHIP  OF  THE  CROSS,  a 
superstitious  reverence  for,  or  even  idolisation  of,  the  symbol 
of  redemption  at  the  cost  of  the  devotion  due  to  the  Re- 
deemer Himself,  nothing  is  as  yet  to  be  perceived  among 
them.  The  cross,  as  they  know  it,  is  "  not  something  to 
be  worshipped,  but  only  something  to  be  endured."'^  The 
crown  and  centre  of  their  religious  life  is,  no  doubt,  devotion 
to  the  crucified  and  risen  Saviour ;  but  this  as  essentially 
addressed  to  Himself,  not  to  the  instrument  of  His  sufferings 
or  to  the  single  external  circumstances  of  the  Passion.  They 
observe  the  Passover,  the  memorial  of  His  sufferings  and  His 
resurrection,  as  the  oldest  and  principal  festival  of  the  cycle 
of  their  Church  Year.  They  observe  Sunday,  with  the  two 
days  of  stationes  (religious  assemblies), — Wednesday  and 
Friday — of  which  the  former  was  intended  to  recall  to 
remembrance  the  betrayal  on  the  part  of  Judas  or  the 
beginning  of  the  Passion,  the  latter  the  death  of  the  Lord 
or  the  culmination  of  the  Passion — as  prominent  points  in 
their  ecclesiastical  cycle  of  weeks.  But  to  the  cross  as  such, 
not  one  of  their  sacred  days  is  as  yet  devoted.  Even  of 
processions  and  pilgrimages  with  uplifted  station-crosses,  of 
crucifixes  as  indispensable  accompaniments  of  churches  and 

'  Non  solum  effusio  sanguinis  in  confessione  reputatur,  sed  devota;  quoque 
mentis  servitus  immaculata  quottidianum  martyrium  est.  Hieron.,  Ep.  108,  31. 
Comp.  Cyprian,  Non  illi  defuerunt  tormentis,  sed  tormenta  defuerunt  illis.  {Ep. 
12,  I.) 

^  Non  adorandre,  sed  sebeundre  cruces.     Minucius  Felix,  Oct.,  12. 

8 


114  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

altars,  of  the  setting  up  of  crosses  at  the  entrances  to  houses 
or  cities  or  villages,  etc.,  there  is  as  yet  no  word.     In  the 
houses  of  religious  assembly  of  the  Christians  there  would 
appear,  indeed,  to  have  been  present  here  and  there,  as  also 
perhaps  in  their  private  dwellings,  simple  figurative  repre- 
sentations of  the  cross.     But  even  this  is  only  presumably 
to  be  inferred  from  the  reproaches  sometimes  addressed  to 
the  Christians  on  the  part  of  the  Heathen,  that  they  were 
"  worshippers  of  the   cross "   {crncis   religiosi),  as   from    the 
replies  of  the  Church  Fathers  to  this  charge.     When  Minucius 
Felix   declares,  in    answer  to   the  suspicion  of  Staurolatry : 
"  We  neither  worship  crosses,  nor  wish  for  them," '  he  appears 
hereby,  and  still  more  decisively  by  the  reference  which  fol- 
lows to  the  trophies  of  the  heathen,  and  their  resemblance  to 
a  cross  with  a  man  attached  to  it,  to  deny  that  crosses  or 
crucifixes  were  in   religious  use  among  the   Christians.     In 
substantially  the  same  manner  does  Tertullian  express  him- 
self, in  an  amplifying  imitation  of  the  arguments  of  Minucius 
with  regard  to  the  reproach  in  question,  as  well  as  the  still 
more  false  and  slanderous  charge  of  the  worship  of  an  ass. 
The   ofifensiveness  of  the  latter  accusation  he  throws  back 
upon  the  Heathen  with  natural  indignation,  and  with  bitter 
scorn  at  the  untruthful  and  self-contradictory  nature  of  the 
statements  in  Tacitus  (whose  information  with  regard  to  the 
religion  of  the  Jews  formed  the  source  of  his  calumniation). 
But  with  regard  to  the  other  point  he  says,  "  He  who  regards 
us  as  worshippers  of  the  cross  is  himself  equally  guilty," 
referring  to  the  images  of  Pallas  and  Ceres,  and  declares,  in 
opposition  to  all  adoration    of  these   and    similar   material 
figures :  "  If  we  perchance  have  crosses  (as  objects  of  reli- 
gious reverence),  yet  our  worship  is  in  reality  addressed  to 
the  whole   living    God."^      Neither  from   these  justificatory 

'  Cilices  etiam  nee  colimus,  nee  optamus.      Oct.,  c.  29. 

*  Nos,  si  forte,  integrum  et  totum  Deum  colimus  {Apologet.,  c.  16).  Comp. 
shortly  before  :  Sed  et  qui  crucis  nos  religiosos  putat,  consectaneus  noster  erit.  .  .  . 
Et  tamen  quanto  distinguitur  a  crucis  stipite  Pallas  Attica  et  Ceres  Pharia,  quae 
sine  effigie  rudi  palo  et  informi  ligno  prostat  ?  etc. — So  in  substance,  ad  Ahition,, 
I,   12. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  I  I  5 

remarks  of  the  Carthaginian  apologete,  nor  from  the  wretched 
caricature  scratched  upon  a  wall  by  that  heathen  mocker 
in  Rome,  who  represents  the  Christian  Alexamenos  as 
kissing  his  hand  (comp.  Job  xxxi.  27)  to  the  crucified  ass- 
god/  is  anything  to  be  definitely  concluded  either  for  or 
against  the  supposition  of  a  regular  occurrence  of  figurative 
representations  of  the  cross,  or  of  the  crucifix,  in  the 
worship  of  the  Church  about  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century.  The  name  crucis  religiosi  might  very  naturally  be 
attached  to  the  Christians,  even  without  the  existence  among 
them  to  any  great  extent  of  such  representations.  Upon 
their  earliest  monuments  of  art,  the  cross  as  such — as  we 
shall  presently  see — occupies  at  any  rate  no  prominent 
position. 

Only  that  invisible  imitation  of  the  symbol  of  redemption 
which  consists  of  a  blessing  and  consecrating  marking  of  one- 
self with  the  four  points  of  the  cross — the  practice  of  crossing 
oneself  or  CRUCESIGNATION  (the  representation  of  a  sigmmi 
criicis  transeiintis ,  according  to  Gretser's  expression) — ap- 
pears to  be  definitely  and  clearly  attested  even  as  regards 
this  early  period.  "  At  every  step,  at  incoming  and  outgoing, 
at  the  putting  on  of  one's  clothes  and  shoes,  at  bathing,  at 
table,  at  the  kindling  of  the  lights,  going  to  bed,  sitting  down, 
and  whatever  we  do,  we  mark  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  the 
forehead."  Thus  confesses  Tertullian  in  his  "  Wreath  of  the 
Warrior,"-  and  when  at  the  same  time  he  appeals  in  justifi- 
cation of  the  pious  custom  to  the  time-honoured  tradition  of 
the  Christians,  he  would  seem  to  date  its  origin  from  a  period 
scarcely  any  later  than  that  of  the  Apostles.  Of  the  passages 
Rev.  xiv.  I  ;  xxii.  4  (or  Ezek.  ix.  4)  Tertullian  does  not  make 
mention ;  at  least,  in  the  apologetic  treatise  above  adduced. 
But  that  these  and  similar  words  of  Holy  Writ  had  already 
very  early  given  an  impulse  to  the  formation  of  the  custom, 

'  With  the  derisive  subscription:  AXe^dfj-evos  a^^ere  (^ae^erai)  Oedv.  Comp. 
Ferd.  Becker,  Das  Spottcntcifix,  etc.  Breslau,  1866;  Fr.  X.  Kraus,  die  jviniscJun 
Katakombcn,  etc.     Freib.  1872. 

-  De  cor.  viilit.,  c.  3 ;  cp.  c.  4,  as  also  ad  uxor.,  ii.  c.  5. 


I  1 6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

scarcely  admits  of  a  doubt.     Accordingly  Basil  the  Great 
does  not  hesitate  to  trace  back  the  custom  to  Apostolic  tra- 
dition, and  already  Cyprian,  as  well  as  the  third  book  of  the 
so-called  Apostolic  Constitutions,  makes  mention  of  it  as  a 
constituent  part  of  those  sacred  actions  connected  with  the 
sacrament  of  baptism,' while  the  eighth  book  of  the  same 
liturgical  codex  (of  somewhat  later  date)  testifies  to  its  prac- 
tice in  connection  with  the  observance  of  the  Supper.^     Even 
the  employment  of  the  cross  in  connection  with  the  expulsion 
of  daemons  or  healings  of  those  possessed,  as  these  had  to  be 
performed  by  the  lower  ecclesiastical  office  of  exorcists,  itself 
belongs  in  its  first  period  to  the  time  before  Constantine.    Of 
its  effects  the  apologetes  boast,  as  miraculous  proofs  of  the 
power  of  Christianity  in  presence  of  the  Heathen,  who  must 
themselves  be  witnesses  of  such   events  without  being  able 
to  explain  them.     In  speaking  of  these  cases,  express  men- 
tion   is    made  of  crossing  oneself — not,  indeed,  so  early  as 
Justin,  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  or  Origen,  but  yet — by  Lactantius, 
who    gives    a   detailed    statement   as   to   the   power   of  the 
cross  as  signed  upon  the  brow  of  the  confessors  of  Christ, 
especially  as  to  "how  terrible  this  sign  is  to  the  daemons, 
when  they,  adjured  by  the  name  of  Christ,  fled  out  of  the 
bodies  of  which  they  had  taken  possession." "     Yet  without 
doubt  those  earlier  writers  were  already  acquainted  with  the 
application  of  the  sacred  sign  in  the  work  of  exorcism.     For 
as  this  plays  an  important  part  in  very  ancient  rituals  in  the 
exorcism  at  baptism — a  fact  which  is  indirectly  attested  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Tertullian^ — so  can  neither  the  numerous 
references  to  its  daemon-expelling  operation  in  Christian  poets 

'  Basiliiis,  de  spiritti  S.,  c.  27.  Cyprian,  ad  Doneirian.,  26  (tiophreo  cmcis 
mortem  subigere) ;  de  nnit.  ecclcs.,  p.  116  (qui  renati  et  sigiio  Chnsti  signati). 
Const.  Ap.,  iii.  117  (t?  crippayls  clvtI  tov  crTavpou),  viii.  12  {to  Tpbiroiiov  tov 
cravpov).     Cp.  Augusti,  cAj:  ArchdoL,  ii.  442,  730. 

2  Inst,  div.,  iv.  27.  Comp.  ii.  6  ;  Justin,  Dial.  c.  Tryph.,  85  ;  TertuU.,  Apol. 
23  ;  De  cor,  mil.,  1 1  ;  De  idolol.,  Ii;  Cyprian,  De  idolor.  vanit.  ;  Origen,  c.  Cels., 
vii.  4. 

^  De  cor.  viil.,  c.  3  ;  also  Cypr.,  Ep.  76  ad  Magu.  Comp.  Augusti,  /.  c,  ii. 
429  f. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  11/ 

and  prose  writers  from  the  fourth  century  onwards/  nor  the 
important  part  which  it  plays  in  the  Hfe  of  celebrated  monkish 
Fathers  and  saints  from  the  time  of  St.  Anthony,  and  even, 
e.g.,  in  that  of  the  apostate  Julian,"  be  rightly  understood 
otherwise  than  on  the  supposition  of  a  use  of  it  in  such  forms 
of  adjuration  dating  back  to  the  earliest  centuries  of  the 
post-Apostolic  age.  Regarding  the  intrinsic  credibility  of 
the  accounts  in  question,  as  well  as  regarding  the  moral 
and  religious  value  of  this  thaumaturgy  effected  by  means 
of  crossing  oneself,  it  is  very  difficult  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  present  development  of  Christian  doctrine  and  life  to 
form  a  just  conception.  The  fearful  tension  of  the  opposi- 
tion between  the  Grzeco-Roman  idolatry  and  oracular  mani- 
festations— which  precisely  as  a  spiritual  power  on  the  point 
of  expiring  might   once  more  develop    mighty  dsemoniacal 

'  E.g..,  in  Prudentius'  Hymn,  in  qiiadragesima: 

Crux  pellit  omne  crimen, 
fugiunt  crucem  tenebrae ; 
tali  dicata  sigiio 
mens  fluctuare  nescit,  etc. 

Similarly  in  Sedulius'  Hymn,  paschalis  ad  noctiirnmn,  str.  9  : 

Tu  hostis  antiqui  vires 
per  crucem  mortis  conteris  ; 
qua  nos  signati  frontibus 
vexillum  fidei  ferimus. 

Compare  also  the  lines  of  Gregory  the  Great :  Lignum  crucis  mirabile.  str.  3  : 

Til  Christe  rex  piissime 
hujus  crucis  signaculo 
horis  momentis  omnibus 
munire  nos  non  abnuas. 

So  also  the  favourite  verse  of  prayer  belonging  to  the  later  Middle  Ages  : 

O  crux,  ave  spes  unica  ! 
Hoc  passionis  tempore 
Piis  adauge  gratiam 
Reisque  dele  crimina. 

Compare  too  Athanasius,  adv.  Gentes,  c.  i  ;  Cyril,  Catcch.  13  ;  Epiph.,  Her.  30, 
and  farther  patristic  authorities  in  Gretser,  iii.  20 — 26. 

-  Athanas.,  Vita  S.  An/onii  {comp.MuWer,  At/ian.,  S.  395  ff.)  Concerning  the 
involuntary  crossing  of  himself  on  the  part  of  Julian  the  Apostate,  by  which  he 
is  said  to  have  frightened  away  the  dcemons  brought  into  a  temple  at  Athens  by 
the  spells  of  a  goete,  see  Theodoret,  H.  E.,  ii.  3.  Other  stories  of  the  cross  in 
connection  with  the  same  emperor  are  told  by  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  Or.,  iii. 
p.  70;  iv.  p.  112;  Sozomen,  v.  I. — (Comp.  Grets.,  iii.  19.) 


Il8  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

forces — and  Christianity  in  its  youthful  freshness,  pressing- 
forward  upon  its  career  of  victory  with  growing  plerophory  of 
faith,  might  render  necessary  on  the  part  of  the  Christians 
many  other  modes  of  conflict  than  were  known  to  later  ages, 
might  still  impart  (to  that  which  in  later  ages  more  and  more 
stiffened  into  an  empty  ceremony)  in  the  majority  of  cases  a 
substance  and  life  energetically  exerting  itself,  might  hand 
down  through  a  succession  of  generations  the  charismatic 
dominion  over  spirits  granted  to  the  Apostles  (Luke  x.  17 — 
20 ;  I  Cor.  xii.  28),  and  thus  bring  it  into  combination  with 
forms  as  yet  strange,  or  at  all  events  not  common,  in  the 
Apostolic  age,  until  at  last  under  this  modification  too  it 
ceased  to  be  operative,  and  disappeared  from  the  practice 
of  the  Church.  For  yielding  anything  of  apologetic  value, 
the  domain  of  these  phenomena  seems,  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  present  day,  hardly  any  longer  to  be  adapted.  Even 
the  theology  of  Rome,  which  has  a  special  interest  in  attach- 
ing considerable  weight  to  the  miracles  wrought  by  virtue  of 
external  ecclesiastical  ceremonies,  and  which  also  on  this 
account  sought  most  zealously  in  former  times,  in  its  polemics 
against  the  Protestants,  to  make  capital  out  of  these  exor- 
cisms by  means  of  crucesignation  practised  in  the  early 
Church,^  is  in  a  position  only  very  partially  to  overcome 
the  manifold  critical  objections  which  are  opposed  to  the 
supposition  of  the  absolutely  historical  character  of  the  said 
accounts.  But  in  any  case,  what  is  here  urgently  called  for 
in  both  directions — namely,  that  of  an  over-credulous  accept- 
ance of  what  is  handed  down,  and  that  of  an  over-ready 
rejection  of  the  same  from  a  standpoint  which  denies  miracles 
in  principle — is  a  proceeding  by  the  way  of  a  cautious  testing 
and  a  reserved  judgment.  In  relying  on  the  authority  of  the 
Fathers  we  may  easily  come  to  have  too  much  of  a  good 
thing ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  also  easier  to  suffer  oneself  to 

'  Gretser  devotes  to  the  exorcising,  healing,  and  magically  consecrating  oiDera- 
tion  of  the  crucesignation  (the  latter  feature,  e.g.,  in  the  endowing  of  the  holy 
water  with  sanative  qualities)  no  fewer  than  twenty  chapters  of  his  third  volume : 
De  sigiio  criicis  trauseitnte. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  II9 

be  led  by  the  influence  of  modern  conceptions  and  scientific 
prejudices  to  a  one-sided  doubting  and  impugning  of  the 
facts  in  question,  than  it  is  to  manifest  operations  of  faith 
and  love  similar  to  those  of  the  Christians  of  the  times  from 
which  these  accounts  date. 

Thus  much  also  is  already  distinctly  apparent  from  that 
more  ordinary,  not  thaumaturgical,  practice  of  crossing  one- 
self, observed  in  the  Church  of  this  period,  that  it  was  inspired 
and  impelled  by  a  very  high  degree  of  devotion  to  the  redeem- 
ing death  of  the  Saviour  on  the  cross ;  and  that  the  impulse 
to  a  constant  confessing  and  consecrating  presentation  even  of 
the  outward  symbol  of  this  great  fact  of  salvation  was  already 
powerfully  active    in   the    Church.     The   operations   of  this 
impulse  one  discovers  also  in  another  domain,  on  which  has 
sprung   up   a    not  less    interesting   and  far   more   abundant 
fulness   of  characteristic   manifestations   of   the   life   of  the 
Spirit  among  the  early  Christians.     We  mean  the  SEEKING 
FOR  SO-CALLED  "  HIDDEN  CROSSES  "  (cruces  dissimulatae)  in 
the  province  of  Biblical  exegesis,  or  of  an  apologetic  demon- 
stration for  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus  in  connection  with  the 
sacred  history.      Every  single  instance  of  the  existence  of 
directly  or  indirectly  cruciform  objects  mentioned  within  the 
compass  of  the  Mosaic  ceremonial  legislation,  or  of  the  Old 
Testament   history  of  salvation,  yea   almost  every  kind  of 
wooden  vessel  or  block  of  wood  referred  to  within  the  limits 
of  this  history,  is,  by  virtue  of  this   impulse,  explained  as  a 
significant  type  of  the  cross  on  Calvary.     The  pious  investi- 
gators of  Scripture  are  as  it  were  drunken  with  the  air  of  the 
cross.     Side  by  side  with  that  artificially  typologising  mode 
of  proceeding  which  discovers  the  blood  of  the  Lord  in  every 
scarlet-red   or  purple   object,  sees  holy  baptism  reflected  in 
every  mention  of  water,  however  accidental,  they  leave  nothing 
unobserved   which    seems    adapted    to    indicate   either    the 
material   or  the   form  of  the  symbol    of  redemption.     Both 
Apostolic    modes   of  expression — that    preferred    by   Peter, 
which  brings  into  greater  prominence  the  material  side,  and 
the  Pauline  one,  which  lays  greater  stress  upon  the  form  and 


I20  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

appearance  (comp.  above,  p.  102  f.),  serve  as  guides  to  this 
tendency  directed  towards  the  greatest  possible  piling  up 
of  analogies.  Even  into  the  domain  of  heathen  mythology 
and  literature  do  they  make  occasional  incursions,  in  order 
to  augment  the  number  of  significant  vouchers.  As  Plato 
is  already  cited  (see  above,  p.  83)  as  prophesying  of  the 
salvation-bringing  name  of  Christ,  so  must  even  the  vine  of 
Bacchus — this  latter,  it  is  true,  as  a  plagiarism  from  the 
blessing  of  Jacob :  Gen.  xlix.  10  ff. — yield  a  typical  reference 
to  the  cross,  and  the  Sibyls  themselves  proclaim  mysterious 
oracles  relating  to  this  very  object.^  In  addition  to  these 
there  are  those  analogies  derived  immediately  from  external 
nature  about  us,  or  from  the  business  of  daily  life,  as  masts 
with  cross-yards,  ploughshares,  spades,  trophies,  statues, 
flight  of  birds,  swimming  of  fishes,  and  similar  things,  in 
which  the  form  of  the  sacred  symbol  is  seen  to  be  reflected 
even  beyond  the  pale  of  the  history  of  salvation,  as  a  testi- 
mony to  all  the  world  for  the  revealed  truth. 

The  germs  of  this  remarkable  procedure  in  the  multiplying 
of  types  appear  so  early  as  the  literature  of  the  Apostolic 
Fathers.  It  is  true  Ignatius  of  Antioch  and  Polycarp  content 
themselves  as  yet  with  a  practical-mystic  exposition  of  the 
significance  of  the  cross,  without  by  an  artificial  allegorism 
importing  ideas  foreign  to  the  subject.^  But  already  Clement 
of  Rome  cannot  resist  interweaving  with  his  exhortations  to 
the  Corinthians  a  fragment  of  the  scarlet  wool  of  Rahab,  as 
a  significant  type  of  the  blood  of  the  Redeemer.^  And  with 
the  author  of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  written  only  a  few 
years  or  decades  later,  the  typology  of  the  cross  is  already  in 
luxuriant  bloom,  betraying,  like  the  kindred  allegoristic  arts 
of  the  same  author,  its  origin  in  the  school  of  Alexandrine 

^  Justin,  Apol.  »iaj.,  p.  89.  Comp.  Orac.  Sib.,  v.  257  ff. ;  viii.  245  (Sozom., 
H.  E.,  ii.  i). 

^  Ignat.  ad  Smyrn.,  I  [ibairep  KadrjXojixivovs  ev  ri^  aravpui  tou  Kvpiov'I.  Xp.);  ad 
Trail.,  c.  II  ;  ad  Ephcs.,  c.  9  {avacpepbixevoi  ds  to,  vi}/7]  Slo,  rqs  fxrixavris  rod  'I.  X/3., 
8  ecTTiv  ffravpos,  axoi-vio}  xP'^A'f  o'  '''V  ^"eiifxaTi  ry  'Ayiip),  ad  Ro7n.,  7  (0  ip.h%  ^pws 
iffravpurai,  k.t.X.) — Polycarp,  ad  Phil.,  c.  7  :  koX  6s  &j'  y.T]  ofjLoXoy^  rb  /j-apr^piov 
rov  (TTavpov,  €K  roO  dia^oXov  iariv, 

^  Clem.,  I  Cor.  12. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  12  1 

Judaism,  especially  of  Philo.^  Here  already  the  bramble 
bush,  on  which,  according  to  Rabbinical  tradition,  the  scarlet 
wool  was  placed  on  the  Jewish  Day  of  Atonement,  as  also 
the  tree  upon  which,  according  to  the  same  authority,  it  was 
placed  at  the  killing  of  the  red  heifer,  figure  among  the  types 
■of  the  cross  of  Christ.  The  same  is  the  case  with  the  fruit- 
bearing  verdant  tree,  planted  by  the  rivers  of  water,  of  the  first 
Psalm,  the  glorious  Trees  of  Life  of  Ezekiel's  temple  stream 
'{Ezek.  xlvii.  12),  the  blood-dripping  wood  of  the  Esra 
Apocalypse  (4  Esra  v.  5),  the  outstretched  arms  of  Moses  in 
prayer  for  the  victory  of  his  people  during  the  battle  with  the 
Amalekites  (Exod.  xvii. ;  cp.  Isa.  Ixv.  2),  the  serpent  lifted 
up  by  Moses  as  a  symbol  of  salvation  (Num.  xxi.),  and 
finally  the  muster  of  the  318  servants  of  Abraham,  the  victor 
over  Chedorlaomer  and  deliverer  of  Lot ;  this  last  by  virtue 
of  gematric  interpretation,  inasmuch  as  they  interpret  the 
letters  I  H  T,  representing  the  number  318,  as  indicating  the 
name  of  Jesus  and  the  symbol  of  the  cross  (J  or  +).- — Yet 
more  luxuriantly  is  this  mode  of  view  developed  in  the 
Apologies  of  Justin  Martyr.  Alike  as  regards  its  material 
and  its  form,  the  cross  is  for  him  prefigured  by  a  long  series 
of  Old  Testament  types.  As  typical  with  respect  to  its 
material  are,  in  his  estimation,  not  only  the  Tree  of  Life,  but 
also  the  wonder-working  rod  of  Moses,  with  which  he  divided 
the  waters;  the  wood  with  which  he  sweetened  the  bitter 
waters  of  Mara,  as  well  as  the  palm  trees  of  Elim  ;  Abraham's 
■oaks  of  Mamre  ;  Judah's  staff  given  as  a  pledge  (Gen,  xxxviii, 
18)  ;  Jacob's  ladder,  his  staff",  and  his  peeled  poplar,  hazel,  and 
chestnut  rods  (Gen.  xxx.  37,  according  to  Luther's  version); 
Aaron's  almond  rod  that  budded  ;  Isaiah's  rod  out  of  the 
stem  of  Jesse  (Isa.  xi.  i) ;  David's  tree  planted  by  the  rivers 
of  water  (Psalm  i.  3),  and  flourishing  palm  tree  (Psalm  xcii.  12), 
and  not  less  his  comforting  "rod  and  staff"  (Psalm  xxiii.)  ; 

'  On  Philo's  influence  upon  the  exposition  of  Scripture  on  the  part  of  the  Greek 
Fathers  in  general,  and  more  particularly  of  Barnabas,  see  E.  Siegfried,  Philo  v. 
Alexandria  ah  Aiiskger des  Alien  Tcstauieuts,  etc.,  Jena,  1874,  S.  330  ft. 

*  Barnab.,  Ep.,  c.  7,  8,  9,  11,  12.  Comp.  J.  G.  Miiller's  explanation  on  these 
places. 


122  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Elisha's  wood  with  which  he  caused  the  iron  of  one  of  his  dis- 
ciples which  had  fallen  into  the  Jordan  to  swim  (2  Kings  vi. 
I — 7);  finally,  also  the  wood  of  the  delivering  ark  of  Noah,  the 
type  of  the  Church.^  Similarity  of  form  with  the  cross  he  per- 
ceives— apart  from  such  non-biblical  objects  as  mast,  plough- 
share, human  form,  standard,  military  emblem,  trophy,  etc. — in 
the  Paschal  lamb,  transfixed  upon  the  spit,  in  Moses'  hands 
uplifted  in  prayer,  in  the  brazen  serpent,  in  the  horn  of  a 
unicorn,  which  the  blessing  of  Moses  (Deut.  xxxiii.  17,  accord- 
ing to  the  Septuagint)  promises  to  Joseph,  in  the  stretching 
forth  of  the  hands  on  the  part  of  the  Lord  towards  His 
disobedient  and  gainsaying  people,  spoken  of  by  Isaiah 
(ch.  Ixv.  2)?  Most  of  these  instances  occur  again  in  the 
later  Fathers,  but  not  without  being  augmented  by  one  or 
other  additional  analogy.  Thus  Irenaeus  adds  to  the  material 
types  of  the  cross  not  only — by  virtue  of  an  antitypical  inter- 
pretation, or  by  a  special  extension  of  the  comparison  of  Paul, 
Rom.  V.  1 2  ff. — the  Tree  of  Knowledge,  through  which  Adam 
sinned,^  but  also  the  ploughshares  and  sickles  into  which  the 
prophet  Micah  foretells  that  the  swords  and  spears  shall  be 
beaten  in  the  Messianic  age  of  blessing  (Mic.  iv.  2  f.)  As  a 
reference  to  the  form  of  the  cross  does  he  regard,  inter  alia, 
the  mention  of  the  life  of  the  people  hanging  before  their 
eyes,  in  Deut.  xxviii.  66.^  Tertullian  also  observed  in  the 
Tau  of  Ezekiel  (ch.  ix.  4)  a  pre-reference  to  the  sacred  symbol 
of  redemption ;  but,  moreover,  regards  the  wood  borne  by 
Isaac  to  his  own  altar  of  sacrifice,  the  ram  taken  from  the 

'  Justin,  Dial.  c.  Tryph.,  p.  312  sqq.,  367  sq. 

-  Apol.  MaJ.,  p.  90  sqq.  ;  Dial.,  p.  259,  317  sq.,  338,  341. 

^  Iren.  adv.  Hivr.,  v.  16  sq. — On  the  parallels  to  this  antitypical  parallelising 
of  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  with  the  Cross  of  Christ,  e.g.,Evang.  Alcod.,  c.  23  sq.  ; 
TcrtwW.,  adv.  Jiid.,  13;  Firmic.  Mat.,  de  errore  prof.  rell.,c.  25  ;  Augustine,  &;-«/. 
I.  c.  4 ;  Serni.  Ixxxiv.  c.  3,  etc.,  comp.  Piper,  Der  Batiin  des  Lebcns,  "  Ev.  Kal." 
1863,  S.  54  ff.  To  the  passages  herein  treated  of  must  be  added,  Commodian, 
Carm.  Apolog.,  v.  324  sqq. 

^  The  words  Et  erit  vita  tua  pendens  ante  oculos  tuos  et  non  credes  vitse  tuse  (in 
the  original  equivalent  to  saying  "Thou  wilt  be  in  constant  peril  of  thy  life,  and 
not  believe  in  the  preservation  of  thy  life  "),  Messianically  interpreted  of  the 
death  of  the  Lord  upon  the  cross  :  Iren.,  adv.  Hccr.,  iv.  23  ;  v.  18;  comp.  Tertull., 
adv.  Judd.,  12  ;  Cyprian,  Tcstivnn.,  ii.  20  ;  Lact.,  Instil. ,  iv.  18. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  1 23 

thorn  bush  and  offered  in  place  of  Isaac,  the  wood  {^vXov), 
mentioned  in  Joel  ii.  22,  and  Jer.  xi.  19,  and  other  things,  as 
prophecies  relating  to  the  cross/  A  like  mode  of  interpreta- 
tion prevails  in  Cyprian,  especially  in  his  "  Testimonies  (for  the 
Messiahship  of  Jesus)  against  the  Jews,"  in  Commodian  and 
Lactantius  ;  it  is  occasionally  found  also  in  the  Alexandrians 
Clement  and  Origen.  Nevertheless  the  spiritualism  of  these 
latter  with  more  difficulty  admits  of  a  quiet  and  persistent 
maintenance  of  such  explanations  as  the  only  allowable  and 
legitimate  interpretations  of  the  passages  in  question,  and 
therefore  occasions  a  frequent  departure  from  the  traditional 
view  introduced  by  pseudo-Barnabas  and  Justin — a  view 
which  in  the  first  place  becomes  strictly  traditional  only  with 
the  western  theologians." 

However  quixotic  and  uncritical  much  that  is  here 
mentioned  may  appear  from  the  modern  exegetical-scientific 
standpoint,  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  an  ardent  love  to 
the  crucified  Saviour  and  a  devout  absorption  in  the  mystery 
of  His  redeeming  suffering  underlies  it  all ;  and  that  in  this 
so  powerfully  acting  impulse  to  discover  typical  points  of  con- 
nection with  that  which  forms  the  centre  and  essence  of  all 
salvation,  and  to  discover  these  in  all  epochs  of  the  history  of 
redemption,  as  also  in  the  visible  creation  around  us,  there 
is  to  be  seen  an  effort,  in  many  respects  praiseworthy,  after 
a  deeper  and  more  connected  intellectual  apprehension  of  the 
Divine  revelation  of  salvation,  or,  if  you  will,  the  first  pre- 
requisite for  a  philosophy  of  history  from  the  Christian  stand- 
point. The  allegoric-exegetic  tradition  of  the  following 
epochs  has  to  some  extent  outdone,  in  point  of  arbitrary 
assertion  and  unbounded  play  of  imagination  in  this  domain, 
even  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  with  those  its  immediate  suc- 
cessors.    But    also  in  the   direction  of  the  working   out   of 

'  Tert.  adv.  Jihid.,  10 — 13;  comp.  ApoL  16;  ad.  Nat.,  ii.  12;  adv.  Marc, 
iii.  18  sq. 

^  Cyprian,  Testiiiini,  ad  Jiidd.,  ii.  20 — 22  ;  Dc  zelo  et  liv.,  p.  261  ;  Commodian, 
Carm.  Apolo^.,  v.  222  sqq.,  320  sqq.  ;  Lact.,  iv.  18  sqq. — As  regards  Clement  and 
Origen,  comp.  Diestel,  Gesch.  des  A.  T.  in  der  Kirclic,  S.  34,  36  ff ;  Siegfried,  as 
before,  S.  343  ff.,  351  ff. 


124  1'HE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

deeper  and  purer  conceptions  as  to  the  essential  character  of 
the  history  of  salvation,  as  to  the  fundamental  laws  in  the 
Divine  government  of  the  world,  and  at  the  same  time  as  to 
the  person  and  work  of  the  Divine-human  Redeemer,  later 
ages  have  made  notable  progress,  a  progress  however  to  which 
an  important  and  lasting  impulse  was  given  in  that  study  of 
the  emblems  and  types  of  the  cross  which  was  made  in  the 
first  Christian  centuries. 

As  regards  the  earliest  ART- ACTIVITY,  too,  on  the  part  of  the 
Church,  there  is  felt  a  powerful  impulse  to  the  objectivising 
and  plastic  emblematisation  of  its  devotion  to  the  Crucified, 
without  however,  in  this  respect  either,  more  than  mere  germs 
and  incomplete  beginnings  at  first  making  their  appearance. 
On  the  one  hand  an  aversion  for  all  that  reminded  of  the 
superstitious  idol  worship  of  the  Heathen,  on  the  other  also 
the  wish  to  preserve  themselves  as  far  as  possible  free  from 
meriting  the  reproach  of  staurolatry,  expressed  in  the 
mockery-crucifixes  and  similar  forms,  led  the  Christians  to 
avoid  all  more  decided  steps  in  this  direction.  The  ardour, 
too,  with  which  the  Gnostic  sects,  as  the  Valentinians  (whose 
specially  powerful  reon,  the  all-embracing,  immovably  standing 
frontier-guardian  of  the  world  of  light,  Horos,  bore  also  the 
name  of  "  Stauros,"  and  was  symbolised  by  the  cross)  and 
the  Ophites,  occupied  themselves  in  their  speculations  with 
the  cross  or  the  wood  of  life,  as  likewise  the  Manichaean 
doctrine  of  the  Jesus  patibilis,  extended  after  the  manner  of  a 
cross  through  the  material,^  all  this  might  naturally  contribute 
to  enjoin  upon  Catholic  Christendom  the  greatest  possible 
reserve  on  this  point,  and  might  admit  of  pictorial  representa- 
tions of  the  cross,  or  even  of  the  Crucified,  only  to  the  most 
limited  extent.  As  regards  the  aversion  for  art  on  the  part 
of  the  early  Christians  in  general,  the  alleged  entire  absence 
of  pictorial  representations  in  their  religious  assemblies,  the 
only  very  hesitating  and  emblematically  concealed  drawings 

'  Augustine,  contr.  Faust.,  i.  32;  Evodius,  De  fide,  c.  28  (from  the  Epist. 
fundamenti).  On  the  Ophites  comp.  what  is  said  above,  p.  87,  note  ^.  On  the 
2Toy/»6s  of  the  Valentinians,  Henvxci,  Die  valentiii.  Gnosis,  etc.,  S.  179. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTAKTINE    CHURCH.  1 25 

of  the  saints,  which  alone  they  had  permitted  to  themselves, 
very  exaggerated    statements    have   been    made,  as    well    in 
polemical  writings   of  early    Protestant  theologians  against 
Rome,  as   in  the  text-books  of  the   History  of  Art  and  of 
Church  History — to  the  reducing  of  which  to  more  modest 
dimensions    the    modern    investigations   in    the    catacombs, 
especially  on  the  part  of  the  indefatigable  De  Rossi,  have 
contributed  not  a  httle.     But  though,  for  the  Roman  Christi- 
anity at  least,  the  number  of  Christian  figures  and  emblems, 
which   are    proved   to    date    back   to   the   second    or   third 
century,  has  been  by  degrees  shown  considerably  to  exceed 
the  estimates  formerly  current,  yet  as  regards  the  representa- 
tion of  the  Saviour  on  the  cross,  the  earliest  art  of  the  Church 
has  in  this  respect,  at  all  events,   imposed  upon   itself  the 
severest    restraint.      For  according  to  the  distinct  evidence 
of  the  monuments,  crucifix  figures^  zvlicthcr  painted  or  plastic, 
are  at  this  period — as  indeed  in  the  two  first  centuries  after 
Constantine — as  yet  altogether  zvanting.     The  earliest  known 
instance  of  such  a  figure  dates  from  the  age  of  Gregory  the 
Great :    it    is   the   crucifix    presented    by   this    pope   to   the 
Lombard  queen  Theodolinde,  now  in  the  Church  of  St.  John 
at    Monza.     Of    yet   later   date,    perhaps    belonging   to   the 
seventh  or  eighth  century,  does  the  only  image  of  the  Crurif^,d 
which  has  been  discovered  in  the  Catacombs  at  -lome,  that  ol" 
San  Giulio,  appear  to  be.      But  it  would  also  setm,  as  wiU-hje 
more  fully  demonstrated  below,  that,  ihe  Christi-li- art  of  the 
East   did   not,    up  to   the   beginning    of  thv,    sixth    century, 
venture   upon    representations   of    ibe    v^rucified    Redeemer. 
Without  doubt,  aversion  for  the  pu'-  'inment  of  crucifixion,  as 
a  mode  of  execution  infamous  a-  a-  accursed  in  the  extreme, 
which  it  is  alleged  was  legally  abolished  and  interdicted  by 
an  edict  of  Constantine — although  probably  this  may  have 
been   the  case  only  under  one  of  his  successors — also   con- 
tributed   in    its    measure  to   render   the  .depicting    of  their 
Saviour  as  one  hanging  upon  the  tree  of  the  curse,  for  the 
Christians  of  the  first  ages  an  impossibility.     As  the  Good 
Shepherd,  with  the  rescued  lamb  upon  His  shoulders,  or  even 


126  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

as  Orpheus,  as  the  vine,  as  a  fish,  as  a  lamb,  or  as  otherwise 
emblematically  represented,  in  accordance  with  the  types 
found  within  or  outside  of  the  Bible,  does  He  appear  suffici- 
ently often  in  the  catacomb  figures  of  the  earliest  centuries. 
But  the  cross  remains  constantly  wanting,  in  these  symbolic- 
iconographic  representations,  which  in  no  case  approach  to 
the  character  of  portraits.  Not  even  the  well-known  com- 
binations of  the  lamb  with  the  cross,  most  widely  diffused 
throughout  the  west,  from  the  time  of  Paulinus  of  Nola, 
would  appear  to  date  back  to  a  period  as  early  as  the  pre- 
Constantine  age.  We  need  not  therefore  say  that  for  such 
representations  as  that  of  the  youthful  Christ  standing,  with 
an  ivory-adorned  cross  in  His  arms,  upon  the  mountain  of 
Paradise,  or  as  that  of  the  bust  in  which  Christ  appears  with 
long  hair  and  a  cruciform  Byzantine  nimbus,  no  such  early 
antiquity  can  be  vindicated.^  "  The  Church  in  those  days, 
when  her  blood  daily  mingled  with  her  tears,  bore  the  death 
and  cross  of  her  Redeemer  deeply  enough  in  her  heart  with- 
out such  things  ;  what  she  needed  was  consoling  and  uplifting 
thoughts,  and  on  this  account  they  preferred  to  draw  upon 
the  walls  of  the  subterranean  city  of  the  dead  scenes  which 
typified  the  infinite  compassion,  the  inexhaustible  love  of  the 
Lord,  or  the  ultimate  victory  of  the  good  cause,  the  triumph 
■Tjver  the  wont  and  its  persecutions.  For  the  same  reason,  no 
i>\rp-7Q  of  martyrdom  was  yet  depicted,"  -  etc. 

Wh^le  thv^'  the  cross  and  crucifixion  remained  still  foreign 
to  the  pamting  ?.s  to  the  sculpture  of  the  pre-Constantine 
period  in  general,  or  the  use  of  the  cross  in  painting  was 
confined  to  such  mere  y  decorative  figures  of  the  cross,  or 
crosswise  placed'  panels,  ^a  are  displayed  in  the  renowned 
ceiling-piece  of  S.  Lucina,  oi  the  yet  more  beautiful  one  of 
S.  Priscilla,^  the  sacred  symbol  of  redemption  plays,  on  the 

'  Stockbauer,  as  before,  S.  133  ff.  ;  F.  X.  Kraus,  Die  cln-istliche  Kunst  in  ihren 
Anfdngen,  S.  loi  ff. 

2  Kraus,  S.  104.  Comp.  the  remarks  throughout  the  section  on  early  Christian 
paintings,  S.  83  ff. 

'  Both  ceiHng-pieces — planned  and  executed  on  a  like  ornamental  system  as  the 
iieathen  adornments  of  walls,  ceilings,   etc.,   of  the  same   age  (with  \rreaths  of 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  12 J 

other  hand,  a  very  important  part  in  the  ART  OF  monogram- 
MATIC  WRITING  among  the  early  Christians,  that  profound 
mystical  hieroglyphics  which  by  means  of  simply  interwoven 
name-signs  served  to  express  a  comprehensive  confession  of 
faith  in  the  Redeemer  and  His  work.  Inasmuch  as  this 
simple  and  transparently  clear  but  deeply  significant  kind  of 
cipher  embraces  in  itself  the  very  earliest  expressions  of 
Christian  art,  and  inasmuch  as  in  it  the  cross,  in  combination 
with  the  initial  letters  of  the  name  of  Christ,  forms  the  most 
essential  and  primary  object  of  the  representation,  the  ivhole 
Christian  art-devdopment  may  be  traced  back,  indirectly,  to  the 
cross  as  its  primary  vegetative  germ,  or  at  least  as  one  of  its 
earliest  impelling  motives. 

It  is  remarkable  that  here  too  we  meet  with  the  same 
leaning  upon  pre-Christian  heathen  conceptions  and  symbols, 
as  we  saw  was  frequently  the  case  in  the  domain  of  that 
seeking  on  the  part  of  the  Apologetes  and  Exegetes  for 
hidden  crosses.  It  is  possible  that  all  the  oldest  forms  of  the 
early  Christian  monogram  (Figs.  63 — 6G). 

X-  *    ^    f 

Fig.  63.  Fig.  64.  Fig.  65.  Fig.  66. 

have  been  already  occasionally  employed  on  pre-Christian 
inscriptions  or  coins  of  Rome  or  the  East ;  and  have  thus  in 
their  passing  over  to  the  use  of  Christians  undergone  a  like 
change  of  signification  in  accordance  with  Christian  ideas,  as 
was  the  case  in  the  domain  of  painting,  e.g.,  with  the  figure 
of  an  Orpheus,  or,  in  that  of  sculpture,  with  that  s*" 
an  ancient  rhetor  or  philosopher,  which  was  transfo 
the  Catholic  community  of  the  middle  -"il  ■*'  ^^hird  ccuiury 
into  a  statue  of  their  venerated  bishc^  and  martyr,  St.  Hip- 

flowers,  cornucopias,  leafy  vine  branches,  little  birds,  winged  genii,  tritons,  etc.), 
but  bearing  in  addition  specifically  Christian  symbols,  such  as  especially  the  Good 
Shepherd — are  represented  and  explained  in  the  admirably  illustrated,  though 
certainly  to  a  large  extent  uncritical  and  (particularly  as  regards  its  chronological 
data)  wholly  unreliable,  work  of  the  Abbot  of  Solesmes,  Dom.  Gueranger, 
Sainte  Ckile  ct  la  Sociclc  Roviaiiie  atix  dcitx  preiii.  Siccles  (Par.  1874),  p.  284  sq. 
Comp.  also  Kraus,  as  before,  S.  95. 


128  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

polytus.^ — The  figure  X,  the  simplest  primary  monogram,  as 
initial  letter  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  at  the  same  time  as  a 
remote  indication  of  the  cross,  occurring  with  especial  fre- 
quency upon  seals  and  rings,  as  upon  grave  inscriptions,  had 
— at  least  as  a  numeral,  ^.^.,  upon  the  monumental  inscrip- 
tions of  the  famous  tenth  legion,  at  the  same  time  also  as 
simple  adornment,  perhaps  only  by  way  of  ornamentation 
upon  ancient  Italian  and  Etruscan  vase-covers,^  etc. — already, 
within  the  limits  of  heathen  art  and  epigraphies,  played  a  part 
of  which  the  Christians,  so  far  as  they  made  use  of  this  sign, 
must  not  seldom  be  reminded.  At  any  rate  the  specifically 
Christian  sense  which  this  cipher  of  the  name  of  Xptcrro?  (and 
XptarLav6<;,  Acts  xi.  26)  necessarily  soon  obtained,  quickly 
enough  pushed  out  the  remembrance  of  those  pre-Christian 
significations  ;  so  that  the  sign  had  already  within  the  epoch 
under  review  become  that  characteristic  main  symbol  of  the 
religion  of  Jesus,  with  regard  to  which  the  emperor  Julian 
once  designated  his  efforts  directed  to  the  extirpation  of  this 


religion  a  "warfare  with  the  X.""      The  sign    /T\  also,  an 

Fig.  67. 

X  interwoven  with  the  initial  letter  of  the  name  of  Jesus,  in 
such  wise  as  to  result  in  a  simple  star  form, — occurring  for 
the  first  time  as  a  Christian  symbol  upon  a  catacomb  inscrip- 
tion, with  the  consular  date  of  268  (or  perhaps  279), — appears 
to  have  been  at  least  on  some  occasions  already  employed 
upon  pre-Christian  art-monuments ;  whether  as  a  mere  orna- 
'^''  '  ^s  once  upon  the  under  side  of  the  bottom  of  an  urn 
lasecca,*  or  as  the  most  simple  representation  of  a 
stai,  and  in  «.LL  cdj^e  possibly  with  religious  symbolic  sig- 
nification, as  upon  PhctV-'cian  coins,  and  even  upon  those  of 
the  pseudo-Messiah  Bar-cochba  and  the  emperor  Julian,  on 

'  Piper,    Mythologie    der    christlichen    Kttnst,    i.    42   ff.       Comp.     Kraus,    S. 
Ill  ff. 

*  Comp.  ch.  i.,  p.  18  ;  as  also  Appendix  I. 
3  Misopogon,  pp.  99,  III  (ed.  Paris,  1853). 

*  De  Mortillet,  Le  sigiie  de  la  croix,  etc.,  p.  126. 


IN    THE    FRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  1 29 

which  it  displays  the  sign  (Fig.  6%.     The  sign  (Fig.  6^,  com- 
bining in   itself  the  two  first  letters  of  the  name  XpcaT6<i, 


>j<'  ^ 


Fig.  68.  Fig.  69. 

attested  as  a  Christian  monogram  for  the  first  time  by  an 
inscription  belonging  to  the  year  298,  the  consular  year  of 
Gallus  and  Faustus,  has  likewise  already  passed  through  a 
previous  heathen  history.  It  occurs,  perhaps  as  a  name 
cipher  of  the  master  of  the  mint,  already  upon  Attic  tetra- 
drachms,  as  well  as  upon  certain  Ptolemaic  coins ;  so  too,  as 
we.  know,  upon  Bactrian  coins  of  Hippostratus,  belonging  to 
the  second  half  of  the  second  century  before  Christ,  as  well 
as  (without  essential  modification  of  form)  upon  silver  coins 
of  the  Pontian  king  Mithridates,  in  the  last  century  before 
Christ ;  lastly,  upon  a  coin  of  the  persecuting  emperor  Decius 
from  Magnesia  at  the  foot  of  Sipylus,  where,  in  connection  with 
a  preceding  A,  it  seems  to  be  a  sign  of  abbreviation  for 
apxovTo<i,  just  as  it  occurs  besides  as  an  abbreviation,  e.g., 
for  Xpv(x6<i,  Xp6vo<i,  in  Greek  inscriptions  and  manuscripts.'^ 
Finally,  also  the  sign  (Fig.  Gy),  which  is  seen  for  the  first  p 
time  in  the  Christian  West  upon  an  inscription  belonging  T 
to  the  year  355,  as  upon  coins  too  of  the  emperor  '''■s- 67- 
Valentinian  I.,  but  on  the  other  hand  must  have  been  earlier 
in  use  in  the  East  as  a  Christian  monogram — since  Ephraem 
(t  Z7^)  designates  it  as  one  of  the  most  frequently  occurring 
and  widely  spread  signs  of  this  kind — and  was  current  even 
in  heathendom  as  an  abbreviation  of  important  significance. 
Upon  coins  of  the  Armenian  king  Tigranes,  vanquished  by 
Pompey,  it  appears  to  represent  the  first  letters  of  the  name 
of  this  ruler,  or  even  of  his  capital,  Tigranocerta  (TIFP). 
In  like  manner  it  is  found,   assuredly  only  as    a   monetary 

'Cohen,  Description  des  Moiinaics  Rom.,  t.  vi.,  pi.  xi.  46; — De  .Sanlcy, 
Recherchcs-sur  la  A^umismatiqiie  Judaiqite  i^^x.  1854),  p.  l66,  Comp.  Martigny, 
Dictionn.,  p.  416;  Stockbauer,  S.  113. 

2  Miinter,  Sinnhildcr  dcr  Christen,  etc.,  i.,  S.  33.  Lenormant,  Melanges 
d'Archeologie,  iii.  195  sqq.  Stockbauer,  S,  86  f.  Compare  also  what  has  been 
said  above,  p.  15. 

9 


130  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

cipher,  without  any  kind  of  deeper  significance,  upon  three 
coins  of  Herod  the  Great.^ 

That  of  the  various  points  of  contact  with  pre-Christian 
emblems  here  brought  under  notice,  some  are  only  of  an 
accidental  nature,  must  be  admitted  to  be  possible.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  heathen  origin 
of  the  following  signs,  likewise  also  sometimes  occurring  upon 
early  Christian  monuments : 

SI 


^ 


Fig.  68.  Fig.  6g.  Fig.  70. 

Especially  often  is  there  found  the  Swastika  sign,  alternating 
in  the  two  forms  here  given.  Sometimes  it  is  an  adornment 
of  goblets,  sometimes  of  other  household  service  or  utensils, 
sometimes  of  the  graves  of  martyrs,  sometimes  of  the 
garments  of  grave-diggers,  etc.  And  indeed,  according  to 
De  Rossi,  this  was  at  a  very  early  period,  in  the  second 
and  first  half  of  the  third  century,  a  particularly  favourite 
form  of  the  hidden  indication  of  the  cross,  which  later  fell 
more  into  disuse.^ 

Some  archc-^ologists  have  sought  to  attach  to  it  the  signi- 
ficance of  a  monogram  strictly  speaking,  i.e.,  the  abbreviated 
indication  of  a  name  or  a  group  of  names.  Gori  has  ex- 
plained it  of  the  name  Jesus,  in  the  peculiar  mode  of  writing 
it  Zesus,  with  Z  for  J,  which  occasionally  occurs.  Others 
have  looked  upon  the  two  Zs,  supposed  to  be  intertwined  in 
it,  as  abbreviations  of  the  well-known  form  of  salutation, 
t,i](Tri<i  {vivas),  and  accordingly  claimed  as  the  sense  of  their 
reduplication  the  plural  ^t'^a-r^Te,  etc.^  In  the  entire  absence 
of  authentic  documentary  evidence,  these  interpretations 
possess  little  value.  What  is  certain  is  only  that  this  sign,  a 
very  ancient  and  frequently  occurring  emblem  upon  heathen 

^  Garracc'i,  /  7'i'/n  oma/i  (A'l  J>r.  C/in'siiaiii,  p.  104;  comp.  Martigny,  ZJ/r/Zc^ww., 
art.  "  Monogramme  du  Christ,"  p.  414  ;  Stockbauer,  S.  87,  107;  Rapp,  S.  127. 
Compare  above,  ch.  i.,  p.  16,  note  ^. 

^  De  Rossi,  in  the  Spicileg.  Solesm.,  iv.,  p.  514;  Roma  sott.,  p.  318.  Comp. 
Garrucci,  /.  c. ;  also  Buoranotti,  Boldetti,  and  others,  in  Stockbauer,  S.  92. 

^  Gori,  Syiii/i.  lit.,  in  Stockbauer,  as  before. 


IN    THE    TRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.  131 

monuments,  of  the  East  as  well  as  of  the  West,  was,  on  account 
of  its  resemblance  to  the  cross,  adopted  by  the  Christians, 
and  for  a  time  {at  any  rate  before  the  employment  of  the 
more  accurate  and  complete  representations  of  the  cross), 
cherished  and  multiplied  with  affection.  The  same  appears 
also  to  have  been  the  case  here  and  there  with  the  Egyptian 
ansate  cross ;  yet  its  occurrence  upon  Christian  monuments 
earlier  than  the  fourth  century,  or  even  before  the  discovery 
of  a  considerable  number  of  ancient  Egyptian  figures  of  this 
kind  at  the  destruction  of  the  Serapeion  under  Theophilus, 
A.D.  390,  can  hardly  be  proved.^  The  lower  half  of  the 
ansate  cross,  on  the  other  hand,  the  J  or  St.  Anthony's  cross, 
as  such  unquestionably  passed  over  into  Christian  usage  at  a 
much  earlier  date ;  whether  precisely  by  reason  of  an  imi- 
tation of  ancient  Egyptian  characters,  or  on  account  of  the 
resemblance,  in  itself  sufficiently  great,  of  the  Greek  and 
the  Roman  T  to  the  form  of  a  cross,  may  remain  undecided. 
(See  immediately  below,  and  compare  our  copy  of  some 
early  Christian  catacomb  inscriptions  bearing  this  sign  T  as  a 
monogram  of  the  cross  :  Appendix  V.,  No.  5.) 

De  Rossi,  who  designates  the  three  figures  here  last  treated 
of,  as  well  as  the  monogram  X,  as  cruces  dissiimtlatce,  and  in 
doing  so  certainly  rightly  indicates  their  general  significance,""' 
adds  to  the  series  of  these  hidden  crosses  yet  another  sig- 
nificant emblem,  that  of  the  anchor  or  anchor-cross  : 

Fig.  71.  Fig,  72.  Fig.  73. 

Even  Clement  of  Alexandria  bears  witness  to  the  existence 
of  this  symbol  as  employed  for  the  purposes  of  Christian 
ornamentation.  He  recommends  to  the  ladies  of  his  congre- 
gation to  wear  as  an  ornament  besides  the  dove,  the  fish,  the 
ship,  the  lyre,  or  the  ship's  anchor."^    Especially  upon  early 

*  Rochette,  La  croix  ansce,  etc.,  pp.  306  sqq. 

-  De  Rossi  ;  in  Pitra,  Spied,  sol.,  I.e. 

'  Civilta  cattol.,  1857,  v.,  pp.  731  sqq.     Stockbauer,  S.  130. 


132  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Christian  signet-rings  does  it  appear  frequently  repre- 
sented, under  one  or  other  of  the  above  forms,  ordinarily  the 
second  of  these,  which  with  special  distinctness  expresses 
the  emblematic  reference  to  the  cross.  A  gem,  dating,  it 
is  alleged,  from  as  early  as  the  second  century,  evidently 
belonging  originally  to  a  signet-ring,  displays  an  anchor 
placed  between  two  fishes,  a  lamb,  a  dove,  an  image  of  the 
Good  Shepherd,  and  a  ship  with  a  T-shaped  mast.  The 
cross  in  the  form  of  a  T  appears  upon  it  not  less  than  three 
times ;  between  all  these  figures  are  inscribed  the  letters 
of  the  word  l-)(9v^}  In  general  the  anchor  appears  in  fre- 
quent combination  either  with  the  figure  of  a  fish  or  with 
the  name  IXQTX  (=  Ir^aov^  XpcaTO^  Oeov  Tio^  Scortjp). 
Whether,  hovv'ever,  this  combination,  as  is  often  assumed,  is 
designed  to  express  the  sense  of  "  Hope  in  Christ "  (analo- 
gous to  the  frequently  occurring  formula  upon  early  Christian 
grave-inscriptions  :  Spes  in  Christo,  Spes  in  Deo  Christo),  or 
whether  the  emblem  of  the  anchor  is  in  every  case  to  be 
referred  to  the  simile  of  Heb.  vi.  i8,  19,  and  to  be  taken  in 
the  first  place  as  an  emblem  of  Christian  hope,  may  be  open 
to  doubt.  Raoul  Rochette  sees  only  the  idea  of  salvation  or 
blessedness  in  Christ  expressed  by  the  anchor,  and  De  Rossi 
likewise  thinks  that  the  figure  of  the  anchor  is  ordinarily  and 
in  the  first  place  a  cntx  dissinmlata,  a  veiled  allusion  to  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  while  it  comparatively  rarely  symbolised  the 
idea  of  hope.  The  latter  he  considers  to  be  the  case  where, 
e.g.^  the  proper  names,  such  as  Elpidius,  Elpizusa,  or  Elpis, 
appear  in  combination  with  several  figures  of  anchors, — cases 
which,  for  the  rest,  lose  somewhat  of  their  significance  from 
the  fact  that  sometimes  also  the  names  Agape,  Agapetes, 
Agapetus,  are  met  with  upon  the  inscriptions  on  graves,  ac- 
companied with  the  symbol  of  the  anchor.- 

Much  in  the  sphere  of  this  primitive  Christian  monogram- 
matics  and  cross-symbolics  may  stand  in  need  of  satisfactory 

'  R.  Rochette,  /.  c,  p.  223. 

^  R.  Rochette,  /.  c,  p.  223  ;  de  Rossi,  Roma  soit.,  ii.  318  ;  and  De  momimentu 
Christianis  IXOTN  exhibentibus  (Par.  1855),  p.  18;  Martigny,  Diet.,  p.  32. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH,  I  33 

> 

explanation  by  means  of  further  researches.  Some  things,  as, 
e.g.,  the  precise  date  of  the  origin  of  many  an  inscription  or 
pictorial  representation,  or  the  special  motives  which  led  to 
the  choice  of  this  or  that  particular  form,  may  perhaps  never 
be  divined  with  perfect  certainty.^  Be  this  as  it  may,  so 
much — thanks  to  the  efforts  made  in  the  exploration  of  the 
catacombs  and  the  extraordinary  results  yielded  from  this 
source — so  much  is  brought  distinctly  to  light  that,  between 
these  earliest  germinal  beginnings  of  the  pictorial  art  among 
Christians  and  those  typical-allegorical  speculations  of  the 
Church  Fathers  in  regard  to  all  the  history  of  redemption's 
having  Christ  the  Crucified  One  as  its  aim,  there  exists  a 
highly  significant  parallelism,  and  that  this  parallelism,  espe- 
cially as  regards  the  striking  prominence  given  to  the  cross 
in  both  domains  of  spiritual  creation,  presents  really  astonish- 
ing analogies.  The  hidden  crosses  of  the  art  monuments  and 
inscriptions  form  a  faithful  copy  or  companion  piece  to  the 
Jiidden  crosses  of  the  patristic  typology  and  exegesis.  There 
underlies  both  forms  in  which  this  central  main  fact  of  salva- 
tion is  emblematised  one  and  the  same  glowing  love  to  the 
Crucified  One,  one  and  the  same  ardently  enthusiastic  faith 
and  hope  in  His  gracious  presence,  one  and  the  same  con- 
fessor's courage,  making  glad  to  die,  one  and  the  same  thirst 
for  the  bliss-giving  communion  of  His  sufferings.  The  im- 
pulse to  the  celebrating  presentation  and  glorifying  of  the 
blessed  mystery  of  redemption  by  the  blood  of  Christ  is,  in 
in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  most  powerfully  active ;  it 
objectivises  itself  here  as  there  in  a  multiplicity  of  more  or 

^  It  is  only  uncertainty  as  to  the  antiquity,  that  is  to  say  the  time  of  the  earliest 
appearing  of  the  single  forms,  which  has  prevented  our  treating  in  the  present 
division  of  some  farther  monogrammatic  figures,  which  possibly  may  have  a  pre- 
Constantine  origin,  although  their  most  frequent  occurrence  belongs  to  the  follow- 


*       #        t        ^        ^       t 


Fig.  74.  Fig.  75.  Fig.  76.  Fig.  77.  Fig.  78.  Fig.  79. 

ing  epoch.     So  the  star-monograms  (Figs.  74,  75),  the  forms  (Figs.  76 — 78),  and 
the  combination  (Fig.  79),  and  many  others. 


134  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

/  less  chosen,  forced,  or  artificial  emblematisations  ;  it  produces 
there  rhetorical  and  historico-philosophic,  here  iconographic 
modes  of  presentation,  which,  with  marvellous  rapidity, 
become  traditional,  and  of  which  the  increasingly  favourite 
character  becomes  evident  from  the  putting  forth  of  a  multi- 
tude of  fruitful  germs,  in  which  new  and  ever  new  variations 
of  one  and  the  selfsame  theme  announce  themselves.  To 
the  full  opening  up  of  all  these  germs,  the  impulse  towards 
the  increased  multiplication  of  the  symbolic  forms,  unques- 
tionably present  in  a  high  degree  of  vigour,  does  not,  within 
the  period  of  time  now  under  review,  succeed  in  attaining. 
The  pressure  of  persecutions,  falling  with  heavy  weight  upon 
the  Church,  sufficiently  accounts  for  the  fact  that  as  yet  the 
stage  of  the  cnices  dissiimdat(^  was  not  really  passed,  either 

/in  art  or  in  the  philosophy  of  history  and  Christological 
speculation..  As  in  the  latter  province  there  are  still  wanting 
the  daring  genius  and  the  lofty  flight  of  thought  of  an  Atha- 
^lasius   and    an    Augustine,   so   do   the    conceptions   of   the 

(Christian  artists  at  first  remain  behind  the  abundant  and 

i imaginative  creations  of  a  Paulinus  of  Nola  and  the  no  less 
luxuriant  splendour  of  the  architects  and  plastic  artists  of  the 
Justinian  age,  not  to  say  behind  the  much  higher  and  more 
iglorious  art  products  of  the  maturer  Middle  Ages.  Even  the 
use  made  of  the  symbol  of  redemption  remains  for  the  time 
being  at  the  stage  of  modest  rarenessj  A  testimony  of 
brilliant  religious  acts  or  of  magnificent  missionary  successes 
of  the  Church  the  banner  of  the  cross  cannot  as  yet  be ;  and 
the  more  so,  since  the  custom  of  bearing  crosses  at  the  head 
of  processions,  as  towering  banners  or  standards,  visible  from 
afar,  did  not  as  yet  exist.  Everywhere  does  the  outward  life 
of  Christendom  appear  until  now  as  a  down-trodden  one, 
walking  in  lowly  servant  form  ;  everywhere  is  still  breathed 
the  air  of  the  catacombs;  everywhere  still  flows  martyr 
blood.  The  Church  of  God  held  in  the  bondage  of  Egyptian 
slavery,  sighing  beneath  the  oppression  of  Pharaonic  perse- 
cutions, still  waits  for  the  delivering  act  of  the  new  Moses, 

'  Eusebius,  De  vita  Const.,  i.,  12,  19,  20,  38  ;  ii.,  51.  Delaitd.  Const.,  c.  17,  etc. 


IN    THE    PRE-CONSTANTINE    CHURCH.     '  1 35 

who,  at  the  same  time  with  her  elevation  to  the  victorious 
throne  of  freedom,  had  to  lay  the  foundation  for  a  more 
copious  and  independent  development  of  her  powers  of 
life,  a  development,  indeed,  which  was  forthwith  to  degene- 
rate also  into  manifold  abnormal  forms  and  excesses,  and 
together  with  an  abundance  of  glorious  phenomena  to  bring 
to  maturity  also  full  many  a  baneful  fruit  of  Heathenism 
and  Judaism. 


-^6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 


IV. 

Cou.stantinc'.s  iVmow  of  tire  Crcrji.i 

AS    THE    STARTING-POINT    FOR    THE    SENSUOUS    EXTERNAL 
ADORATION    OF   THE   CROSS   IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGES. 

THE  dream-vision  of  Constantine  before  his  decisive 
conflict  with  Maxentius  belongs  to  the  number  of  those 
facts  of  history  in  themselves  small,  but  in  their  consequences 
affecting  the  course  of^the  world,  and  therefore  fraught  with 
universal  significance.  Small  we  call  it,  because  dreams  with 
important  bodings  and  higher  suggestions  are  precisely  in 
the  life  of  the  great  and  powerful  of  this  earth  so  far  from 
rare,  that  they  are  rather  to  be  counted  among  the  ordinary 
than  the  extraordinary  events.^  To  such  dream  with  Divine 
suggestion — analogous  to  those  given  under  well-known  cir- 
cumstances to  a  Pharaoh,  a  Solomon,  a  Nebuchadnezzar,  an 
Alexander,  a  Caesar,  an  Innocent  III.,  a  Frederic  the  Wise, — 
does  it  seem  that  this  fact,  attested  as  to  its  essential  con- 
tents by  so  many  witnesses,  must  be  reduced.^  Lactantius, 
Ruffinus,  and  Sozomen,  next  to  Eusebius  the  earliest  and 
most  trustworthy  independent  authorities  regarding  the  event, 
speak  only  of  a  dream,  in  which  the  cross  with  the  inscription, 

'  Compare  the  abundant  illustrations  furnished  in  Splittgerber,  Schlafimd  Tod, 
with  the  psychical  phenomena  accompanying  the  same,  S.  98  lif. ,  132  fif.  ;  as  well 
as  in  Perty,  Die  tnystisc/iett  Ersdicinungen  der  vicnschlichcn  Natiir,  2nd  edn.,  ii. 

353  ff. 

^  Lactant.,  De  viorte  perseait.,  c.  44;  Ruff.,  H.E.,  ix.  9;  Sozom.,  i.  3.  Only  the 
first  of  these  accounts:  "  Commonitus  est  in  quiete  Constantinus,  ut  coeleste 
signum  Dei  notaret  in  scutis  atque  ita  prcelium  committeret,"  could  possibly  be 
looked  upon  as  in  entire  harmony  with  that  of  Eusebius.  But  "m  quicie"  is 
surely  equivalent  to  "in  sleep,"  and  nothing  in  the  words  suggests  an  appearing 
of  the  coeleste  signum  Dei  even  before  this  sleep. 


constantine's  vision  of  the  cross.  137 

"In  this  conquer!"  was  displayed  to  him,  and  thus  the 
Divine  direction  to  exalt  this  symbol  to  a  military  emblem 
was  communicated.  The  account  given  by  Eusebius — 
beside  which  that  of  the  uncritical  later  compiler,  Gelasius  of 
Cyzicus,  can  lay  claim  to  no  independent  significance — repre- 
sents this  dream,  indeed,  as  preceded  by  the  objective  and 
external  appearing  of  a  brilliant  sign  of  the  cross,  visible  in 
the  sky  at  clear  noonday,  in  connection  with  the  before- 
mentioned  inscription ;  ^  and  attaches  unusual  weight  to  this 
statement  by  an  appeal  to  the  narrative  given  by  the 
emperor  himself,  and  confirmed  by  an  oath.  Yet  even  in 
this  account  the  dream  properly  speaking  plays  the  principal 
part.  It  is  added — like  one  of  those  retrospective  or  epime- 
thean  dreams  of  which  history  notes  no  less  a  number  having 
a  high  significance,  than  it  does  of  the  directly  prophetic  or 
promethean  ^ — by  way  of  explanation  and  confirmation  to 
that  vision.  The  Divine  admonition,  as  yet  uncomprehended 
on  the  ground  of  the  vision,  is  repeated  by  Christ,  appearing 
in  the  dream,  and  more  nearly  defined  by  the  fact  that 
the  symbol  beheld  in  heaven  is  to  be  imitated  and  employed 
as  a  banner  in  the  impending  conflict.  Such  later  inculcation 
of  the  command  already  given  by  means  of  the  vision  itself 
could  hardly  have  been  necessary  had  the  words  "  Tovrco 
vUa "  appeared,  written  with  actual  letters  and  distinctly 
legible,  in  the  sky,  above  or  beneath  the  figure  of  the  cross 
The  extraordinary  and  wondrous  sight  would  have  been 
impressed  much  too  inefiaceably  alike  upon  the  emperor  as 
upon  his  warriors — who,  according  to  Eusebius,  were  joint 
witnesses  of  the  appearing — for  it  to  be  necessary  that  a 
subsequent  dream  by  night  should  present  it  before  him 
anew,  and  as  it  were  interpret  it.  So  too  an  external  mani- 
festation and  sign  in  the  sky,  seen  by  a  whole  army  at  once, 

'  Z>e  vit.  Constantini,  i.  28  :  ' ky.<p\  fxea-rj/LLPpivas  ijXiov  wpas,  -rj^v  t-Tjs  -rj/xepas 
diroKXivova-rjs,  avroh  6(p6a\fio'ts  Ide?!'  ^<pri  iv  aiVy  ovpavu)  inrepKei^ievov  tov  rfK'iov 
aravpov  Tpoiraiov,  e/c  (puirbs  cwiaTap-ivov,  ypatprjv  re  avT^  cxvi-rjcpdaL  XeyovaaV  toCtl^ 
vLKa.  Again,  c.  29  :  .  .  .  'Eivravda  drj  vttvovvti  avTurbv  'KpiffTof  tov  Qeov  criiv  tl;. 
tpavivTt.  Kar  ovpavov  cr'qp.eii^  64>drivai  re  km  irapaKeKevffaadai,  k.  t.  X. 
Comp.  Perty,  /.  <r.,  S.  390  ff. 


I3S  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

would  hardly  have  passed  unnoticed  on  the  part  of  the  great 
majority  of  contemporary  heathen  and  Christian  historians. 
That  which  Constantine  really  saw  in  the  sky  on  the  afternoon 
preceding  that  memorable  dream-night,  may  perhaps  have 
been  a  bright  cloud-creation,  bearing  an  approximate  re- 
semblance to  a  cruciform  or  labarum-shaped  figure.^  It  is 
even  possible  that  he  saw  nothing  of  this  kind  with  his 
outward  eye,  but  that — deeply  moved  by  the  critical  nature 
of  his  position,  and  meditating  intently  on  the  most  effectual 
way  of  securing  the  assistance  of  the  Divine  powers  and  the 
victory  over  his  foes — he  received  a  visionary  impression, 
which  presented  before  his  inner  eye  the  symbol  of  the 
Christians'  God  as  the  only  true  and  victorious  military 
emblem.  The  dream  by  night,  by  which  this  was  succeeded, 
set  the  seal  upon  that  which  he  had  seen  during  the  ecstasy. 
What  in  the  former  case  was  looked  upon  rather  as  a  possible 
means  of  salvation  and  blessing,  ripened  in  the  latter  case 
into  a  bold  and  vigorous  resolve ;  it  was  withdrawn  at  once 
from  the  realm  of  bare  possibilities,  now  recognised  as  a 
Divine  necessity,  and  promptly  carried  into  execution. 

An  explanation  of  these  events,  by  which  they  thus  become 
psychologically  comprehensible — and  such  as  may  be  sup- 
ported by  various  points  of  analogy  from  the  earlier  and  later 
history  of  the  human  soul-life^ — by  no  means  excludes  the 
co-operation  of  the  living  God  as  the  author  of  the  dream,  as 
well  as  of  the  preceding  vision  or  ecstasy  ;  but  rather,  regarded 
from  the  Theistic  standpoint,  renders  absolutely  necessary  the 
supposition  of  such  Divine  co-operation  and  supreme  origi- 
nation. A  providential  bringing  about  of  the  resolution  of 
Constantine,  henceforth  to  fight  under  the  symbol  of  Christ, 
must  thus  necessarily  be  supposed  ;   and  the   more  so,  the 

'  Comp.  the  historic  instances  adduced  by  Gieseler  in  his  "Church  History" 
of  the  appearing  of  such  cloud-crosses  ;  e.g.,  that  one  of  purple  colour,  which  was 
observed  at  Weimar  about  Christmas-time  in  the  year  151 7,  and  Avas  regarded  as 
a  significant  Divine  portent. — A  long  chapter :  De  apparitionUnts  ss.  criicis,  of 
course  almost  entirely  of  a  legendary  character,  is  presented  by  Gretser,  "  De 
cruce,"  t.  i.,  lib.  iii.,  pp.  624 — 668. 

-  Splittgerber,  /.  c,  S.  152  ff. 


constantine's  vision  of  the  cross.  139 

greater  the  inner  improbabilities  under  which  the  attempt  to 
trace  back  this  resolution  to  merely  political  considerations 
on  the  part  of  the  emperor  must  labour,  the  more  distinctly 
the  great  victory  obtained  by  him  over  Maxentius  was  later 
by  himself  ascribed  to  the  special  kindness  of  the  God  of  the 
Christians,  and  this  indeed  not  merely  orally  on  his  part  in 
conversing  with  Eusebius,  but  also  much  earlier  in  writing, 
viz.,  in  the  public  archives,  as  well  as  in  the  edict  of  Milan  of 
the  year  313,  and  the  more  evidently  the  transition  wrought 
in  him  from  the  time  of  this  victory — a  transition  from  a 
worshipper  of  Apollo  and  the  other  gods  of  the  Roman  state 
to  a  confessor  of  the  religion  of  Christ — is  seen  to  exclude 
for  ever  a  permanent,  formal,  and  complete  relapse  into 
idolatry.  The  great  and  powerful  effects  of  this  process  of 
transformation  (however  regarded  and  explained),  by  virtue 
of  which,  from  the  time  of  the  conflict  with  Maxentius,  he 
appears  as  the  declared  patron  and  constant  protector  of  the 
Christians,  formerly — to  say  the  least— treated  with  indiffer- 
ence, these  great  effects  it  is  which  absolutely  forbid  the 
resolving  of  the  account  of  Eusebius  into  a  mere  legend,  a 
subtilisation  of  the  same  into  a  myth  without  any  actual 
kernel  of  reahty.  It  is  true  the  idea  of  an  entire  renewal, 
after  the  type  of  that  of  Paul  at  the  entrance  to  Damascus, 
to  which  later  Christian  authors,  as,  e.g.,  one  so  early  as 
Theodoret,  have  sought  to  raise  the  effect  of  the  Constan- 
tinean  vision  of  the  cross,  is  in  painful  opposition  to  the  actual 
moral  and  religious  comportment  of  the  emperor  during  his 
subsequent  reign.  On  this  account  an  absolutely  miraculous 
character  cannot  be  conceded  to  the  event  which  called  forth 
his  tranformation :  to  conceive  of  the  labarum  vision  as  an 
objective  sign  in  the  sky,  perceptible  at  the  same  time  for 
many,  is  impossible.^    Still  less  indeed  is  possible  that  absolute 

'  Uhlhorn,  Z?£?r  Kampf  des  Christenthums  iiiit  don  HeidentJmiii  (Stuttg.  1874) 
S.  328  ff.,  still  maintains  the  objectively  miraculous  character  of  this  event, 
adducing  by  way  of  parallel  the  star  of  the  Wise  Men  (Matt,  ii.)  He  expressly 
combats  at  the  same  time  the  merely  psychological  mode  of  interpretation,  as  well 
as  the  "natural"  intei-pretation,  by  the  supposition  of  a  bright  phenomenon  in  the 
atmosphere. 


I40  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

denial  of  everything  of  a  supra-natural  character  to  the  fact,  as 
one  brought  about  by  Divine  providence — a  denial  according 
to  which  this  fact  would  be  a  politically  crafty  invention  of 
the  emperor,  confirmed  on  his  part  by  an  act  of  perjury  ;  or 
at  best  a  transforming  and  idealising  version  of  that  which 
popular  rumour  was  wont  to  assign  as  the  motive-cause  of 
his  attaching  himself  to  the  religion  of  the  cross,  adopted  by 
him  in  order  to  please  the  Christians.^  Neither  are  those 
heathen  versions  in  which  the  account  of  the  victory  over 
Maxentius  is  current,  in  the  rhetor  Nazarius  (321),  and  later  in 
Libanius  (389),  of  which  the  former  represents  heavenly  hosts 
sent  by  the  gods  as  hastening  to  the  help  of  Constantine,  the 
latter  that  the  victory  was  obtained  through  the  prayer  of 
Constantine  to  the  gods,'-  adapted  to  shake  the  credibility  of 
the  accounts,  given  by  the  Christian  historians  in  essential 
harmony,  of  a  divinely  occasioned  dream-vision  of  Constan- 
tine. 

With  the  supposition  of  a  dream-vision  of  providential 
origin,  with  regard  to  which  we  find  ourselves  in  agreement 
with  the  majority  of  more  recent  critics,^  does  the  circumstance 
also  specially  well  harmonise,  that  the  LABARUM  standard 
introduced  from  the  time  of  the  victory  of  Constantine  as  an 
emblem  of  the  Christian  Roman  imperial  army  (Fig.  80)  ,^1^ 
by  no  means  displays  the  character  of  an  absolutely  /^"^ 
new  invention,  or  that  of  the  product  of  a  directly  Fig.  80. 
Divine  revelation ;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  striking 
resemblance   of  this   symbol    to   the    frequently   mentioned 

'  So  substantially  Spittler,  Henke,  Gibbon,  Martini,  Manso,  Baur,  Biu-ckhardt. 
Keim  does  not  go  quite  so  far. 

^  Nazarii  Panegyric,  in  Constantin.,  c  14.  Libanius,  "tirkp  tuv  'upQiv,i\.,  p.  160, 
Reiske. 

^  Mosheim,  Schrockh,  Augusti,  Hug,  Neander,  Gieseler,  Niedner,  Gass,  Kist, 
Koelling  {Geschichte  der  arianischen  Hdresie,  i.,  S.  70  ff.),  Schaff,  Heinichen, 
Mozley  (Bampton  Lectures  1865),  etc.  A  dream,  even  though  without  higher 
providential  causation,  is  Keim  also  inclined  to  suppose  (Der  Uebertritt  Constantins 
zuvi  Christenthiim,  1863).  Veiy  cautiously  and  attractively  is  the  whole  question 
examined  by  Schaff  in  the  History  of  the  Ancient  Clmrch  (S.  459  ff.  of  the  German 
edn.),  Koelling,  as  above,  and  especially  Heinichen,  in  his  excursus  to  Eusebius, 
Devita  Const.,  i,  2S  (^Ensedii scripta  historica,  2nd  ed..  1870,  tom.  iii.,  pp.  758 — 780. 


constantine's  vision  of  the  cross.  141 

monogrammatic  figures  upon  more  ancient  coins  of  the  East, 
seems  to  indicate  a  reflection  on  the  part  of  the  emperor 
on  the  relations  of  these  characters  to  the  monogram  of 
the  name  and  cross  of  Christ,  as  well  as  a  bearing  of  this 
reflection  upon  his  resolve  to  select  the  said  symbol  as  his 
device.  Whether  now  those  abbreviations  upon  Egyptian, 
Bactrian,  or  Pontian  and  Asiate  coins  (coins  of  Asia  Minor), 
representing  the  form  (Fig.  81)  in  diverse  modifications,  may 


Fig.  81.  Fig.  82. 


N& 


have  been  present  to  his  mind  ;  or  whether — what  indeed 
has  but  slight  probability — the  sign  (Fig.  82),  sometimes 
figuring  upon  Attic  tetradrachms,  may  have  aroused  his 
attention  on  account  of  its  accord  with  the  monogram  of 
the  Christians  : 

X    *    * 

Fig.  83.  Fig.  84.  Fig.  85. 

in  any  case  it  would  appear  that  a  harmonising  contem- 
plation, like  that  which  had  still  earlier  appropriated  certain 
pre-Christian  cruciform  characters  (Fig.  86)  to  Christian  uses, 
or  like  that  which  later  led  to  the  adoption  also  of  the  sign 
(Fig.  82)  on  the  part  of  the  Christians,  had  been  called  into 
exercise  in  his  case  too.  But  among  the  symbols  of  this 
kind   known    to   him,  which   he  caused   to  pass  before   his 

+  t  >^ 

Fig.  86.  Fig.  87.  Fig.  88. 

spirit's  eye,  none  can  have  appeared  to  him  so  much  a 
pregnant  emblematisation  of  the  essence  of  the  Christian 
religion  as  the  figure  (Fig.  88),  combining  in  the  simplest 
manner  the  initials  of  the  name  of  Christ  with  the  sign 
of  the  cross,  the  profoundly  suggestive  double  monogram  of 


142  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Christ  and  the  cross.^  This  symbol,  with  which  he  had  cer- 
tainly before  become  acquainted  through  occasional  intercourse 
with  Christians,-^  and  which — on  account  of  its  twofold  signifi- 
cance, and  its  points  of  contact  with  those  secret  signs  of  the 
East — might  be  expected  to  awaken  special  sympathy  in  a 
mind  like  his,  prone  as  it  was  to  a  mystic  syncretism,  became 
to  him  the  all-embracing  expression  of  his  enthusiastic  self- 
surrender  to  the  new  religion,  from  the  moment  in  which  God 
had  caused  that  vision  beaming  with  bright  radiance  to  arise 
before  the  eye  of  his  mind,  and  as  His  sacred  sign  had  enabled 
Constantine  to  recognise  in  it  the  significant  emblem  of  His 
cause.-^ 

In  something  after  this  fashion  may  the  human  and  the 
Divine,  subjective  and  objective,  imaginative  reflection  and 
higher  suggestion,  have  co-operated  in  bringing  about  that 
decision  in  the  action  of  the  great  emperor,  fraught  with  such 
momentous  consequences,  and  exerting  by  its  after-effects 
such  a  mighty  influence  through  a  long  succession  of  ages — 
as  the  most  immediate  fruit  and  result  of  which  stands  his 
glorious  victory  over  the  heathen  usurper.  With  whatever 
inner  preparation  the  decisive  step  may  have  been  accom- 
panied, and  whatever  religious  or  even  political  considerations 

'  De  vit.  CoHsL,  I.  31  :  .  .  .  bvo  aTOLX^M  to  'KpLdTov  TrapaorfKovvTa  ivofia  .  .  . 
Xi-O-iofiivov  Tov  p  Kara  to  (j-eaaiTdTov.  In  the  word  x'oio/^^''oi'>  even  as  in  the  well- 
known  passage  of  Plato  {^Tim.,  p.  36)  as  prophetically  interpreted  by  Justin, 
there  is  an  allusion  to  the  hidden  cross,  which  was  supposed  to  be  contained  in  the 
figure. 

-  Did  Helena  exert  a  preparatory  influence  upon  Constantine  previously  to  his 
accession  to  the  Christian  faith  ?  Dieckhoff,  Keim,  Heinichen,  and  others  contest 
this  view,  and  rather  suppose — on  the  ground  of  Euseb.,  De  v.  Const.,  iii.  47,  2 — 
that  the  Empress-mother  was  led  to  attach  herself  to  Christianity  only  after  the 
change  in  the  faith  of  her  son.  But  comp.  Koelling,  as  before.  S.  75,  who  with 
good  reason  reverts  to  the  opinion,  formerly  prevailing,  of  the  priority  of  Helena's 
conversion,  and  the  incredibility  or  at  least  inaccuracy  of  the  above-mentioned 
account  of  Eusebius. 

^  Important  contributions  towards  demonstrating  the  fact  that  Constantine  him- 
self from  the  first  traced  this  victory  to  the  special  aid  of  the  Christians'  God,  are 
found  also  in  Piper :  "  Zwei  Inschriften  Constantins  des  Grossen"  etc.  Gotha 
1875.  It  is  there  shown  that,  like  the  much-discussed  insiinctu  divmitatis  of  the 
former  inscription,  so  the  duce  te  (scil. ,  Christo)  of  the  second,  contains  a  direct 
reference  on  the  part  of  the  thankful  emperor  to  the  glorious  event. 


constantine's  vision  of  the  cross.  143 

may  have  contributed  to  the  bringing  of  it  about,  at  any  rate 
it  was  a  step  taken  with  full  resolution,  involving  indeed  no 
moral  renewal  of  life  and  purification  of  heart,  but  yet  a  con- 
sistent attachment  to  the  cause  of  the  Christians'  God,  and 
maintained  throughout  with  real  enthusiasm.  Hence,  ac- 
cordingly, the  pride  and  pomp  with  which,  in  the  first  place, 
the  outward  sign  and  emblem  of  this  cause  was  henceforth 
invested  by  the  emperor,  and  glorified  as  a  symbol  of  the 
religion  called  to  dominion  over  the  earth.  A  long  gilded 
shaft,  with  a  transverse  rod  intersecting  crosswise  its  upper 
end,  upon  which  was  hung  as  a  banner  a  square  purple  cloth, 
richly  adorned  with  precious  stones  and  gold  embroidery,  as 
well  as  with  the  likenesses  of  the  emperor  and  his  sons,  formed 
the  militar)^  emblem,  or  vcxillum,  destined  to  bear  upon  it  the 
sacred  sign  witnessed  in  the  sky,  the  labaritm  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  term — a  vexillum  differing  from  the  ordinary 
military  ensign  of  the  Romans,  not  by  its  mode  of  construction, 
but  only,  as  it  would  seem,  by  the  special  sumptuousness  of  its 
adornments.  Above  the  transverse  rod  of  this  banner  was 
fixed  a  golden  wreath  or  crown,  adorned  with  precious  stones, 
enclosing  the  "  sign  of  the  salvation-bringing  name,"  the 
monogram  of  Christ  in  the  form  of  a  P  crossed  by  an  X  (or, 
what  is  the  same  thing,  of  an  X  transfixed  in  the  middle  by  a 
P).-^  Fifty  chosen  warriors,  the  band  of  the  Staurophoroi,  had 
henceforth  to  encompass,  and  in  turn  to  carry,  this  labarum 
ensign  in  all  wars  of  the  emperor.  So  in  the  war  against 
Licinius,  where  it  is  said  to  have  wrought  new  wonders  of 
victory.^  It  remained  the  consecrated  imperial  banner  of  the 
Christianised  Roman  empire,  even  under  the  successors  of 
Constantine.  Of  these  only  Julian  the  Apostate  removed  the 
monogram  of  Christ  from  above  it,  while  Jovianus  took  care 
to  have  this  restored. — Of  the  other  military  objects  which 
Constantine  adorned  with  the  sacred  monogram,  Eusebius 
expressly  mentions  in  the  course  of  his  description  the  helmet 
of  the   emperor ;    Lactantius,    however,   the   shields   of  his 

'  Euseb.,  Vit.  Const.,  i.  31  (see  also  above,  p.  143,  note  '). 
^  Vit,  Const..,  ii.  7 — 9, 


144  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

warriors.  If  the  statement  of  the  latter  with  regard  to  the 
form  of  this  sign  upon  the  shields  is  to  be  taken  as  Hterall}- 
exact/  it  must  be  conceived  of  as  somewhat  differing  from  that 
of  the  labarum  monogram,  namely,  as  representing  the  figure 
(Fig.  89)  ;  yet  these  words  are  hardly  to  be  pressed.  At  any 
rate,  coins  and  other  monuments  of  the  time  of  Constantine 
ordinarily  display  the  monogram  in  the  form  described  by 
Eusebius,  with  the  assuredly  unimportant  variation  that  some- 

>^    :^    i     X     ^ 

Fig.  89.  Fig.  90.  Fig.  91.  Fig.  02.  Fig.  93. 

times  the  cross-pieces  of  the  X  entirely  enclose  the  ear  (or 
handle)  of  the  P — which  form  (Fig.  90)  would  seem  to  be 
the  earlier  and  more  original  one — and  sometimes  appear 
shortened,  in  such- wise  that  the  said  ear  towers  above  the  X, 
so  that  the  form  (Fig.  91),  resembling  the  Bactrian  labarum, 
results.^  The  diagonal  figure  (Fig.  92)  is  found  for  the  first 
time  upon  coins  of  Magnentius  and  later  emperors  ;  it 
would  seem  no  more  than  the  form  (Fig.  93),  appearing 
at  about  the  same  time,  355  (once  the  monetary  sign  of 
the  Jewish  king  Herod,  cp.  above,  p.  130),  to  have  been  in 
ofiicial  use  under  the  first  Christian  emperors. — If  upon 
many  monuments  of  the  time  of  Constantine  there  are  given 
pictorial  representations  of  the  labarum  standard  as  a  whole, 
which  in  single  particulars  do  not  correspond  with  the 
description  of  Eusebius,  e.^:,  represent  the  monogram  not 
as  above  the  colours,  within  the  golden  wreath,  but  upon 
the  colours  themselves ;  or  place  upon  the  colours,  instead 
of  the  three  imperial  efiigies,  the  words  iv  tovtm  vUa ;  or 
present  the  flag-staff  alone,  without  banner  or  streamer 
upon  it,  crowned  by  the  wreath  with  the  monogram  ;  these 
modifications  are  to  be  accounted  for  either  by  the  special 
regulations  of  the   emperor  himself,  or   by  the  caprice    of 

'  " transversa  litera  X  summo  capite  circumflexo  Christum  notavit." 

Dc  inoi'te  pcrscciit.,  c.  44.     (Compare  thereon  Stockbauer,  S.  lOO.) 

^  Comp.  Orelli,  Inscriptt.  collect.,  vol.  i.,  Nos.  1913,  1916  ff.,  1922.     Rapp,  Das 

Labantm  2ind  der  Sonnenctiltits,  S.  Il6ff. 


constantine's  vision  of  the  cross.  145 

the  artists  labouring  in  his  service.^  It  remains  uncertain 
what  was  the  form  and  arrangement  of  these  delineations  of 
the  "  salvation-bringing  sign"  borne,  according  to  a  statement 
of  Eusebius  in  the  last  book  of  his  "  Life  of  Constantine," 
upon  all  the  weapons  even  of  the  private  soldiers  (iv.  21). 

Moreover,  it  was  not  merely  by  diverse  imitations  of  the 
monogram  beheld  in  that  vision  that  Constantine  witnessed  his 
confession  of  the  religion  of  the  cross.  If  we  may  trust  the 
statements  of  Sozomen  and  Aurelius  Victor,  he  at  once  decreed 
the  abolition  of  crucifixion  as  a  punishment  in  the  now  Chris- 
tianised Roman  empire.  The  accuracy  of  this  statement  is, 
however,  open  to  considerable  doubt.  At  any  rate,  from  the 
time  of  that  decisive  victory  he  zealously  practised  the  rite  of 
crossing  himself,  the  frequent  signing  of  his  forehead  with  the 
protecting  symbol  of  salvation.-  Immediately  after  that  entry 
into  Rome,  which  followed  the  defeat  and  death  of  Maxentius, 
he  caused  his  own  statue  to  be  erected,  as  a  sign  of  victory, 
upon  the  forum,  with  a  spear  or  banner  in  the  form  of  a  cross 
in  his  right  hand,  with  the  inscription  placed  beneath,  "Through 
this  salvation-bringing  sign,  the  true  symbol  of  valour,  I  have 
delivered  your  city  from  the  yoke  of  the  tyrant."  ^  Later, 
after  his  victory  over  Licinius,  he  had  himself  represented 
in  a  painting,  at  the  entrance  to  his  palace  in  Nicomedia,  in 
full  armour  as  the  slayer  of  the  dragon,  his  head  adorned  with 
the  cross,  and  writhing  at  his  feet  a  transfixed  dragon  ; — ^^so  too 
there  exists  a  copper  coin  of  his,  which  displays  the  labarum 
(Fig.  94)  standing  upon  a  pierced  serpent.*  His  coins,  D, 
it  is  true,  display  also  to  a  great  extent  heathen  emblems:  y^y^ 
their  impressions,  upon  which  still  frequently  figure  ^'^''  ^^^ 
Apollo  with  the  sun-ball,  sometimes  also  Mars,  Victoria,  or 

'  Martigny,  Dictioiin.,  art.  "Labarum,"  p.  359,  where  the  more  special  evidences 
from  Georgi,  Bottari,  Garrucci,  etc.,  are  adduced. 

'■^  Euseb. ,  V.  C,  iii.  2  :  rb  Trpoauirov  rui  <TWTrip'n(i  KaracrcppayL^o/jLevoi  (rrj/xeicj). — 
On  the  precarious  character  of  the  statements  of  Sozomenus  (i.  8)  and  Aurelius 
Victor  (De  Ccts.,  41)  concerning  tlie  abolishment  of  the  punishment  of  crucifixion, 
see  above,  p.  65. 

^  Euseb.,  If.  E,,  ix.  9  ;   V.  C,  i.  40. 

*  V.  C,  iii.  2.  Comp.  H.  Cohen,  Lvs  mommies  Roiiiaims,  vi.  160;  Eckhel, 
Docfrina  num.  vet.,  viii.,  p.  88. 

10 


J46  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

the  genius  of  the  Roman  people,  whilst  others  appear  adorned 
with  the  monogram  of  the  Christians'  God,  reflect  the  strange 
Christian-heathen  medley  of  religion  which  remained  peculiar 
to  his  whole  policy  of  government,  a  policy  conditionated  by 
his  twofold  position  as  protector  of  the  Church  on  the  one  hand 
and  Roman  pontifex  viaxiuuis  on  the  other.  One  of  his  coins 
(with  the  reverse  ^6*//  invicto  Comiti)  places  an  equal-armed 
or  Greek  cross  immediately  beside  the  figure  of  the  sun-god. 
And  even  at  the  consecration  of  Constantinople  as  his  Chris- 
tian residence  a  solemn  procession  was  held,  in  which  the 
statue  of  the  emperor,  holding  in  its  right  hand  a  goddess  of 
Fortune,  whose  head  was  adorned  with  a  cross,  was  enthroned, 
in  place  of  Helios,  in  the  chariot  of  the  sun.^  Significant, 
notwithstanding,  is  the  absence  of  evidence  for  any  kind  of 
entire  relapse,  however  temporary,  into  the  state  of  heathenism 
— the  constancy  thus  with  which  the  policy  favourable  to 
Christianity  was  maintained  by  him  during  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  of  his  reign,  from  the  time  of  his  victory  at  the 
Milvian  Bridge  until  his  death ;  yea,  the  increasingly  decided 
tone  of  his  edicts,  which — especially  after  he  had  learnt,  in 
the  circle  of  the  Christian  bishops  at  the  Council  of  Nica^a, 
to  feel  himself  "  bishop  of  the  external  affairs  of  the  Church  " 
— sometimes  almost  assumed  the  character  of  oppressive  and 
persecuting  measures. 

In  this  same  later  period  falls  the  remarkable  event  which 
gave  to  the  superstitious  and  idolatrous  cross-worship  of  the 
Christendom  of  the  Middle  Ages  perhaps  a  more  direct 
impulse  than  the  labarum  vision  itself,  with  its  more  im- 
mediate consequences :  the  PILGRIMAGE  OF  Helena  to  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  (326),  and  the  alleged  discovery  of  the  true 
cross  of  Chinst  on  this  occasion.  The  state  of  the  facts 
regarding  this  incident  is  yet  more  difficult  to  discover,  than 
with  regard  to  that  event  happening  fourteen  years  earlier, 
in   which   Constantine  himself,  as   yet   without   his    mother, 

'  Orelli.  Inscr., /.  c.  Burckhaidt,  die  Zeit  Constantins,  S.  461  ff.,  474f.  That 
after  323  the  emblems  of  the  heathen  sun-worship  disappeared  from  the  coins  of 
Constantine,  is  ordinarily  asserted  (see  e.g.,  Gieseler,  i.  i,  275),  but  hardly  with 
good  reason.     Comp.  Burckh.,  .S.  391  f. 


constantine's  vision  of  the  cross.  147 

formed  the  central  acting  figure.  If  in  the  case  of  Constantine 
there  is  to  be  discovered,  as  a  result  of  a  proper  critical  mode  of 
procedure,  a  genuine  historic  core  to  the  traditions,  frequently 
indistinct  and  mutually  contradictory  as  they  are,  here,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  careful  testing  of  the  sources  appears  to  eliminate 
all  element  of  fact,  and  to  leave  nothing  but  legend  remaining. 
It  is  fatal  to  the  tradition  that  Eusebius,  the  only  contempo- 
rary witness,  distinctly  indeed  reports  Helena's  pilgrimage,  as 
well  as  that  which  she,  and  Constantine  before  her,  had  done 
for  the  clearing  and  adorning  of  the  Holy  Places  in  Jerusalem, 
but  is  utterly  silent  as  to  that  which  in  later  tradition  formed 
the  true  point  of  lustre  and  main  result  of  the  whole  journey 
— the  discovery  of  the  cross.  It  might  perhaps  be  objected 
that  the  Bishop  of  Ca;sarea,  so  severe  and  determined  in  his 
opposition  to  all  kinds  of  image  and  relic  worship,  who  in 
opposition  to  the  desire  of  the  Imperial  Princess  Constantia 
for  a  portrait  of  Christ  launched  forth  into  such  strong  expres- 
sions as  "  heathen  custom,"  etc.,  would  perhaps  have  inten- 
tionally passed  over  an  event,  however  remarkable  in  itself,  if 
he  saw  that  from  it  might  arise  the  germs  of  a  dangerous 
superstition.  But  how  could  such  an  ardent  admirer  of  that 
which  Constantine  had  done  from  the  beginning  of  his 
Christian  period  for  the  glorifying  of  the  symbol  of  the  cross, 
think  it  necessary  to  ignore  precisely  this  latest  and  most 
remarkable  contribution  in  the  domain  of  the  cross  worship, 
on  the  supposition  that  he  knew  anything  of  it  ?  How  could 
he  help  hearing  of  the  astonishing  discovery  in  that  Holy 
City  so  closely  adjoining  his  own  see  }  How  could  the 
pieces  of  the  true  wood  of  the  cross  which  Helena  presented, 
not  only  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  but  also  to 
the  new  Church  of  the  Cross  at  Constantinople — how  could 
the  phylacterium  which  she  caused  to  be  made  for  her 
Imperial  son, — how  could  the  helmet  and  the  bridle  for  his 
charger,  which  Constantine  himself  caused  to  be  forged  out 
of  the  nails  of  the  sacred  cross,  in  order  to  bring  about  a 
literal  fulfilment  (!)  of  the  prophetic  passage  of  Zech.  xiv.  20, — 
how  could  all  this  escape  the  attention  of  so  enthusiastic  an 


148  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

encomiast  of  the  gifts  and  powers  of  the  cross  as  Eusebius  ?* 
And  then  we  must  take  into  consideration  the  serious  contra- 
dictions and  improbabilities  in  the  accounts  of  the  historians 
— partly  of  one,  partly  of  from  two  to  three  generations  later 
than  the  event — who  do  actually  record  it.  Cyril  of  Jeru- 
salem, the  one  least  removed  from  the  event  (f  386),  appears 
to  know  something  of  the  fact  of  the  discovery  of  the  cross  ; 
but  what  he  says  in  his  Catecheses  delivered  at  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  amounts  simply  to  this,  that  the  cross  of  the  Lord, 
still  in  existence,  must  be  taken  as  a  most  certain  proof  of 
His  resurrection.  On  the  other  hand,  the  letter  of  this  bishop 
to  the  emperor  Constantius,  in  which  he  enters  more  fully 
into  the  well-known  details  of  the  legendary  history  of  this 
discovery,  is  certainly  a  forgery  ;  since  Cyril  is  therein  repre- 
sented, at  a  time  when  he  was  beyond  doubt  still  a  semi-Arian 
(about  351),  as  already  an  orthodox  Nicaenist.^  Of  the  next 
following  authorities,  Ambrose  represents  that  the  true  cross 
of  the  Redeemer  was  distinguished  from  the  two  crosses  of 
the  malefactors  buried  with  it,  simply  and  without  a  miracle, 
namely  by  the  title  of  Pilate  found  upon  it."'  Rufifinus  on  the 
contrary,  as  well  as  the  three  Greek  continuators  of  Eusebius, 
relate  that,  since  the  title  was  no  longer  affixed  to  the  wood, 
recourse  was  had,  in  accordance  with  the  directions  of  Macarius 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  to  a  Divine  ordeal — the  testing  of  the 
miraculous  sanative  power  of  the  wood  upon  one  dangerously 
ill,  in  order  to  establish  the  identity  of  the  salvation-bringing 
sign.*  That  which  the  most  copious  of  these  historians, 
Sozomen,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  mentions 
simply  as  a  rumour — viz.,  that  a  dead  person  was  recalled  to 
life  by  means  of  the  new-found  sacred  cross — that  his  western 
contemporaries  Sulpicius  Severus  and  Paulinus  of  Nola  are 
already  able   to  relate   with  all  definiteness  of  detail ;    and 

'  Comp.  }''.  C,  iii.  25  ff.  (espec.  c.  47,  where  the  non-mention  of  the  discovery 
of  Helena  appears  most  surprising),  with  the  unmeasured  teiTns  of  praise  in  which 
he  commends  the  aoirripiov  crjixetov  :  De  laitdih.  Const.,  c.  9,  10. 

■^  Cyrillus,  Catech.,  iv.  p.  27  ;  x.  p.  91.  As  regards  the  spuriousness  of  the 
Fp.  ad  Co7istanthi})i,  see  Gieseler,  i.  2,  279. 

^  Ambrosius,  Orat.  de  obiiji  T/ieodos.,  p.  498. 

*  Rufiuuus,  II.  E.,  i.  7;  Socrat.,  i.  135  Thsodoret,  i.  18;  Sozom.,  ii.  I. 


CONSTANTINES    VISION    OF    THE    CROSS,  1 49 

indeed  the  miracle  of  resurrection  seems  with  them  to  have 
been  directly  substituted  for  the  miracle  of  healing.^  The 
position  too  of  Chrysostom,  who  belongs  to  a  somewliat 
earlier  date,  in  relation  to  this  tradition  is  apt  to  awaken 
serious  distrust.  While  in  one  of  his  homilies  he  manifests  a 
certain  acquaintance  with  its  contents,  he  asserts  in  another 
relating  to  the  gospel  of  the  penitent  thief,  that  Christ  did 
not  leave  His  cross  upon  earth,  but  took  it  up  with  Him  to 
heaven,  whence — on  His  return  to  judgment — it  will  be  dis- 
played as  the  "  sign  of  the  Son  of  man."  The  fragments  also 
of  the  cross  discovered  by  Helena,  which  had  quickly  spread 
throughout  the  world,  and  are  already  referred  to  by  Cyril, 
would  appear  not  to  have  been  unknown  to  him ;  but  he  can 
hardly  have  attached  to  the  same  any  special  importance, 
seeing  that  he  as  occasion  offers  expresses  himself  in  so 
spiritualistic  a  manner  upon  the  subject." 

The  reality  of  the  discovery  of  the  true  cross  by  Helena, 
already  assailed  by  Dallaeus,  Salmasius,  Witsius,  and  other 
Protestant  critics  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,'' 
must,  in  accordance  with  the  above-indicated  state  of  the 
argument,  be  pretty  unconditionally  surrendered.  That  which 
at  all  events  remains  as  the  core  of  the  tradition — the  fact,  in 
itself  not  impossible,  but  yet  one  attested  neither  by  Eusebius 
nor  the  Christian  pilgrim  of  Bordeaux  (333),  of  an  excavation 
made  at  the  command  of  Helena,  and  the  lighting  in  con- 
nection therewith  upon  some  ancient  wooden  blocks,  in  which 
it  was  thought  the  remains  of  the  cross  were  to  be  recognised, 
and  which  may  have  given  the  first  impulse  to  the  presenta- 
tion of  relics  which  now  followed — this,  which  is  perhaps  to  be 
presupposed  as  the  actual  foundation  of  the  whole,  appears  to 
be  of  so  unsatisfactory  a  character,  that  one  can  scarcely 
avoid,  in  connection  Avith  the  tradition  as  it  now  lies  before 

'  Sulpic.  Sev.,  Hist,  sacra,  ii.  49.     Paulin.  Nol.,  Ep.  34  (11). 

^  Comp.  Chrysostom.,  Uoni.  35,  De  Critce  et  Latrone,  with  Hoin.  85  (84). 

^  Dallaeus,  Advers.  Latinonmi  de  Cultus  Rcligiosi  Objecto    Traditioncm,  Geuev, 
1664.     ^aXm&zms,  Epp.  2,,  De  Cruce.  ad  BarthoH?z2i in.      Witsius,  Miscellan.  .Sacra, 
ii.  364.     J.  A.  Schmid,  De  Crucis  Dominica  per  Helenainlnventione  Diss.,  Helmst, 
1 7 14.     More   recent  critical  contestation  see,  e.g.,   in  Sybel  und  Gildemeister 
Dcr  hcil.  Rock  v.  Trier,  1844,  S.  15  ff. 


I50  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

US,  bringing  the  charge  of  conscious  deception  and  invention, 
to  say  nothing  of  unobserved  and  unintentional  accumulation 
and  reduplication  of  mythical  elements.     It  is  a  result  of  his- 
torical criticism  highly  instructive  and  significant  for  aiding 
one  to  form  a  judgment  on  the  whole  province  of  the  sensuous- 
external   rites  of  worship  in   the  Catholic  Church,  that   the 
tradition  concerning  Helena's  discovery  of  the  cross,  Avhich 
tmderlies  the  worship  of  the  cross  in  its  more  material  form, 
is  critically  far  less  supported  tJiau  the  tradition  of  Constantincs 
vision  of  the  cross,  ivJiich  inaugurated  the  Dwre  harmless  and 
ideal  {merely  typical)  form  of  this  ivorship.     There  exists,  we 
admit,  inasmuch  as  this  latter  event  served  to  introduce  an 
effort  after  the  greatest  possible  multiplying  of  copies  of  the 
sacred  sign  and  objects  of  devotion,  and  thus  also  indirectly 
to  inspire  Helena  with  her  desire  to  visit  the  Holy  Land — 
there  exists  a  notorious  causal  connection  in  the  process  of 
origination  of  the  two  traditions.  But  how  much  purer,  how  much 
freer  from  deception  and  delusion  stands  forth  the  earlier  fact, 
as  compared  with  that  happening  a  decade  and  a  half  later, 
this  is  shown  not  only  by  the  state  of  matters,  as  regards  the 
sources  of  the  said  traditions,  but  also  still  more  urgently  by 
the  long  series  of  effects  which  have  proceeded  from  the  one 
event  and  the  other.     For  as  the  roots,  so  the  fruit !     From 
the  suggestion,  given  indeed  naturally  and  physically,  through 
dream  or  vision,  but  indisputably  coming  from  God,  by  virtue 
of  which    Constantine    raised    the   cross  as   the   sign  of  his 
attachment  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  there  has  doubtless  sprung 
up  many  a  sensuous  external  addition  to  the  worship  of  the 
Lord  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  truth,  but  yet  not  that  which  is 
immediately  and    properly  speaking   idolatry.     The    alleged 
discovery  of  the  cross  on  the  part  of  Helena  has  been  the 
source  of  a  rankly  luxuriant  growth  of  superstition  of  the 
worst  kind,  the  fruitful  womb  and  tap-root  of  all   the  relic 
worship  and    abuses  in  the  form  of  pilgrimages  during  the 
following   centuries.     From    the   former   fact,    of  which    the 
historic    foundation    is    still    faithfully    and    clearly   reflected 
through    the    lightly    concealing    garb    of   legendary    report, 
sprang  the  whole  Christian  art-tradition,  in  its  more  abundant 


constantine's  vision  of  the  cross.  I  5  I 

and  more  powerful  creations.  From  the  latter  event,  hardly 
now  to  be  separated  from  its  mythic  surroundings  {i/ivolncra), 
yea,  perhaps  to  be  entirely  regarded  as  a  pure  mythus,  arises 
the  succession  of  uncomely  appendages  and  tasteless  super- 
stitious additions,  which  have  most  odiously  disfigured  the 
religious  art  products  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  in  part  those  of 
the  present  day,  and  have  repressed  for  centuries  the  truly  free, 
original,  and  ideal  unfolding  of  the  artistic  power  of  creation. 
Constantine's  vision  of  the  cross  has  served  as  a  starting- 
point  for  the  sensuous  realism  of  the  cultic  tradition  of  the 
Catholicism  of  the  Middle  Ages — a  realism  not  indeed 
biblically  correct,  but  yet  aesthetically  productive,  and  thus 
unquestionably  historically  justified — in  a  manner  analogous 
to  that  in  which  the  materialism  of  a  sensuous  tendency  in 
the  sphere  of  Divine  service  (cultus),  which  is  neither  bibli- 
cally nor  historically  to  be  justified,  conformed  neither  to 
Evangelical  nor  truly  Catholic  principles,  appears  to  have 
been  not,  it  is  true,  exclusively  produced,  but  to  a  very  impor- 
tant extent  fostered,  by  the  pilgrimage  of  Helena,  with  its 
incredible  miracles.  In  point  of  time,  as  of  origin  and  inner 
essence,  the  two  events — that  confined  to  the  seeing  of  the 
figure  of  the  cross,  and  that  which  proceeded  to  iht  finding-  of 
the  wood  of  the  cross — border  closely  the  one  on  the  other. 
And,  as  the  latter  could  originate  only  upon  the  foundation 
of  the  former,  so  have  also  the  two  tendencies  of  the  religious 
life  of  the  Middle  Ages,  sprung  from  these  and  characteristic 
of  them,  the  religious  aethetic  and  the  magic-superstitious 
or  materialistic  tendencies,  ever  been  active  only  in  close 
connection  the  one  with  the  other.  They  present  one 
continued  succession  of  sensuous-external  efforts,  directed  to 
the  heathenising  (paganising,  partly  also  Judaising)  of  the 
Christian  principle — a  succession  which  we  shall  regard  in 
the  sequel  as  forming  one  indivisible  course  of  development, 
without  making  any  attempt  at  artificial  distinction  or 
separation  of  the  more  moderate  realistic  from  the  more 
broadly  and  grossly  materialistic  phenomena,  yet  with  a 
natural  division  of  the  single  spheres  of  Church  life,  in  which 
these  are  specially  active. 


Ii;2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 


V. 

%l]t  €xo5H  in  i\n  Clntrrjr  b!  t])t  llibM^  ^rjejj. 

IMMEDIATELY  after  the  exaltation  of  Christianity  to 
the  rank  of  the  religion  of  the  Roman  empire,  the  cross 
begins  to  act  as  a  power,  even  as  a  mighty  power.  It  per- 
vades the  whole  Christian  life  of  civilisation  in  all  its  ramifi- 
cations, from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  grade  of  society.  It 
becomes  the  sign  under  which,  and  by  means  of  which,  Chris- 
tianity exerts  its  deeply  penetrating  and  mightily  renewing 
influences  upon  mankind,  the  emblem  of  the  victorious  exer- 
tion of  her  power  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  in  an  outward 
and  an  inward  direction.  "  The  sign  once  abhorred  by  all," 
exclaims  Chrysostom,^  "  the  hated  instrument  of  supreme 
punishment,  has  now  become  the  most  cherished  and  the 
most  honoured  of  all, — one  found  with  princes  and  subjects, 
with  women  and  men,  maidens  and  matrons,  slaves  and  free. 
.  .  .  Everywhere  do  you  see  it  highly  esteemed  and  held  in 
honour  :  in  the  houses,  upon  the  walls,  and  on  the  roofs,  in 
towns  and  villages,  at  markets,  on  the  highways,  in  deserts, 
upon  mountains  and  in  glens,  upon  hills  and  upon  the  islands 
and  ships  of  the  sea,  on  books  and  on  arms,  upon  garments, 
on  couches,  at  banquets  upon  golden  and  silver  vessels,  upon 
pearls  and  wall-paintings,  upon  the  bodies  of  the  possessed, 
yea,  of  diseased  animals,  in  war  as  in  peace,  by  day  and  by 

'  Contra  Judcros  ct  Gentiles,  quod  Oiristus  sit  Dens,  c.  9  (0pp.,  t.  i.,  f.  569  sqq.) 
— On  the  surpassing  importance  of  the  passage  here  adduced  for  the  apologetics  of 
the  Early  Church,  comp.  Forster,  "  Chrysostomus  als  Apologet,"  Jalirb.  f.  dentseJie 
Tkeol.,  1870,  S.  450, 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  153 

night,  in  the  dances  of  the  merry  and  in  the  union  of  those 
who  mortify  themselves."  The  same  Father,  one  of  the 
most  enthusiastic  encomiasts  of  the  cross  as  an  everywhere 
triumphant  power,  elsewhere  describes  how  the  cross  is  now 
^'  borne  (by  all  its  confessors)  upon  the  brow,  not  by  private 
citizens  only,  but  also  by  crowned  heads,  who  wear  it  above 
their  diadems."  ^  He  means  by  this,  as  is  clear  from  similar 
expressions  on  the  part  of  Augustine,'^  and  as  is  besides  con- 
firmed by  pictorial  representations  upon  art  monuments,  not 
something  like  the  custom  of  signing  oneself  with  the  cross 
(crossing  oneself),  but  an  actual  impressing  or  suspending  of 
the  sacred  symbol  upon  the  brow,  whether  immediately,  as 
the  picture — not  unsuspected,  indeed,  as  regards  its  genuine- 
ness— of  that  fair  youth  upon  the  bottom  of  an  early  Christian 
drinking-vessel  presents  this,  or  as  adornments  of  princely 
diadems,  such  as  are  worn  in  the  effigies  of  Valentinian  III. 
and  his  wife  Licinia  Eudoxia  upon  coins,  such  as  are  also 
worn  in  other  imperial  likenesses."'  The  cross,  the  bright 
surpassing  ornament  of  the  great  ones  of  the  earth,  the 
highest  grace  of  the  imperial  crown !  What  an  advance 
since  the  days  of  Tertullian,  who  was  able  to  speak  only  of 
the  use  of  that  invisible  sign  of  the  cross  in  the  daily  life 
of  his  fellow-Christians;  but  where  he  came  to  speak  of  the 
emblems  of  the  Roman  empire,  its  rulers  and  warriors,  could 
at  most  only  point  to  the  presence  of  hidden  crosses,  as  it 
were  unsuspected  and  involuntary  representations  of  the 
sacred  symbol  of  redemption  !  No  doubt,  with  the  world- 
dominating  position  in  which  our  symbol  now  appears,  there 
is  inseparably  connected  a  varied  externalisation  of  the  idea, 
and  an  unreflecting  mechanical  or  even  magical  superstitious 

'  Exposit.  in  Psalm,  cix.  (T.  v.,  f.  259). 

-  Augubtin.,  in  Psalm.  Ixxiii.,  g  6:  Jam  in  frontibus  regum  pretiosius  est  signuiu 
crucis,  quam  gemma  diadematis.     Comp.  in  Psalm,  xxxii.  ;  Sei-m.  ii.  13. 

^   Martigny,  Dictionn.,  p.  186.     In  the  same  work  (p.  188)  is  a  representation 
of  that  exceedingly  beautiful  youth  adorned  upon  the  forehead  with  the  equal- 
armed  cross  (Fig.  95)  (with  the  somewhat  enigmatical  legend  Liher  Nica),      j  1 
after  Boldetti,  who  assumes  as  indisputable  the  early  Christian   origin  of  c=^  J^ 

this  figure.     More  recent  authorities,  however,  as  Garrucci,  regard  it  as  of 

,  ,         •   .  tig- 95 

later  origm. 


154  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

use  of  the  cross  itself.  And  if  with  the  Christians  of  the  age 
immediately  succeeding  Constantine,  and  onwards  to  the  close 
of  the  fifth  century,  contents  and  form,  or  Christian  spirit  and 
external  sign,  as  yet,  for  the  most  part,  appeared  combined  in 
due  proportion,  yet  in  place  of  this  early  synthesis  there 
appeared  later  a  growing  severance  of  these  two  elements. 
Only  for  a  moment,  and  in  constantly  less  satisfactory 
measure,  do  the  advocates  of  an  energetic  reaction  in  the 
sense  of  a  purer  primitive  Christian  spirit  succeed  in  their  re- 
combination. The  two  great  halves  into  which  Christendom 
divides  itself  from  the  time  of  Justinian  and  Heraclius — the 
rigid  Byzantine  school  of  the  East,  and  that  of  the  Germanic 
West,  this  last,  spite  of  its  union  beneath  the  pastoral  crook 
of  the  successors  of  Peter,  fiercely  agitated  and  torn  with 
severe  conflicts — participate  pretty  equally  in  this  condition 
of  secularisation  and  materialisation  of  their  religious  life. 
And  no  one  of  the  great  domains  over  which,  on  this  side 
and  on  that,  the  formative  and  creative  action  of  the  Christian 
spirit  extends,  continues  exempt  from  the  effects  of  this  en- 
deavour after  an  external  and  sensuous  presentation.  All  of 
them  alike,  those  tendencies  of  Church  life  directed  more 
preponderantly  towards  the  outward,  and  those  directed  more 
towards  the  inward,  render  homage  to  the  cross  in  that  one- 
sidedly  objectivising  and  grossly  realistic  manner,  sometimes 
even  descending  to  the  level  of  a  pseudo-Christian  fetichism, 
which  is  characteristic  of  the  religious  civilised  life  of  the 
Middle  Ages  as  a  whole. 

There  are  five  main  spheres  of  Church  life  in  which,  with  a 
view  to  the  unfolding  on  every  side  of  the  phenomena  belong- 
ing hereto,  we  shall  have  to  trace  out  the  sensuous  cross- 
worship  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  the  field  of  the  outward 
diffusion  of  Christianity,  or  in  Missions,  the  power  or  influence 
of  the  cross  makes  itself  felt.  In  the  ritual  of  the  Church,  or 
in  the  Cnltiis,  its  majestic  dignity  is  asserted.  In  Christian 
Art  is  unfolded  its  beauty,  or  the  plenitude  of  its  aesthetical 
bearings.  In  the  inner  and  outward  life  of  devotion  of  the 
monks  and  mystics,  or  in  Asceticism,  there  is  an  after  expe- 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  155 

rience  of  the  pains  of  the  cross.  In  the  Religions  Literature, 
finally,  especially  of  the  Mystics,  there  is  an  attempt  to  fathom 
the  fulness  and  depths  of  the  idea  of  the  cross.  Each  of  these 
spheres  again  includes  within  itself  a  number  of  more  special 
forms,  into  which  the  stream  of  devotion  to  the  cross — as 
modified  in  a  characteristic  manner — is  seen  to  flow.  The 
greatest  abundance  of  such  forms  is  displayed  in  the  domain 
of  the  artistic  aesthetic  glorifying  of  our  symbol,  in  which 
altogether  the  branch  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Middle  Ages 
now  occupying  us  has  put  forth  its  vegetative  power  most 
luxuriantly,  but  also  in  what  is  relatively  the  most  normal, 
sound,  and  effective  manner. 


A.    THE  EXERTION  OF  THE  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS  IN  THE 
MISSIONARY  ACTIVITY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

As  a  subduing  power  the  sign  of  the  cross  first  appears  in 
the  missions  of  the  Christendom  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
missionising  of  the  Church  at  this  stage  of  her  development 
bears  essentially  the  character  of  conquest  :  it  seeks  by  the 
conversion  of  whole  masses,  and  indeed  often  enough  by  the 
method  of  forcible  compulsion,  by  a  mode  of  procedure 
advancing  from  without  inwards,  or  but  too  frequently- 
remaining  contented  with  the  outward,  to  bring  about  the 
subjection  of  the  nations  to  the  faith  in  Christ.  The  cross 
of  Christ  waves  as  a  triumphal  banner  at  the  head  of 
these  expeditions  of  conquest  on  the  part  of  the  Church, 
the  unbloody  as  the  bloody  ones.  It  is  the  indispensable 
requirement  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  preparatory  as 
of  the  conclusive  act  of  this  missionary  enterprise.  It  is 
regarded  as  the  unvarying  emblem  of  Christianity  in  its 
character  of  a  missionising  power  upon  earth,  as  the  manifest 
symbol  and  vehicle  of  all  the  effort  directed  to  the  external 
diffusion  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  whether  on  the  part  of  its 
spiritual  servants  or  of  its  temporal  patrons  and  vassals. 

Characteristic  in  this  respect  is   the   emblem   adopted    by 


156  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

the  Christian  emperors  of  the  East  and  of  the  West  from  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century,  which  designates  them  as  "ever 
augmenters  of  the  kingdom,"  i.e.,  as  augmenters  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  as  advancing  the  great  work  of  the 
diffusion  of  the  empire  of  the  cross  over  the  whole  earth. 
The  IMPERIAL  GLOBE,  a  terrestrial  globe  crowned  by  an 
upright  standing  cross,  the  significant  Christian  counterpart 
to  the  ancient  oriental  symbol  of  the  Venus'  looking-glass  or 
ansate  cross  (Fig.  96),  of  which  it  would  appear  to  be  a 
simple   reversal  —  we    first    meet    with    upon    coins    of  tlie 


? 


Fig.  95.  Fig.  97. 

emperor  Valentinian  I.  and  of  Gratian.  And  in  the  peculiar 
form  (Fig.  97),  where  it  is  intertwined  with  the  labarum 
monogram,  it  is  found  already  upon  a  coin  of  Nepotianus,  a 
nephew  of  Constantine,  who  reigned  less  than  a  full  month  / 
(350).  At  first  the  emblem,  of  which  the  originally  Christian 
signification  is  beyond  doubt, — as  it  is  also  directly  attested 
by  Suidas  in  speaking  of  a  statue  of  Justinian, — is  as  yet 
combined  with  heathen  or  semi-heathen  symbols.  For  upon 
that  coin  of  Nepotianus  it  is  the  goddess  Roma  {Urbs  Roma), 
who  holds  the  imperial  globe  in  her  hand  ;  while  upon  those 
of  Valentinian  and  of  Gratian,  as  upon  those  of  Theodosius  I., 
of  Arcadius,  and  of  Honorius,  it  is  the  goddess  of  Victory 
who  does  so.  Theodosius  II.  is  the  first  who  causes  him.self 
to  be  represented  as  the  bearer  of  the  ball  surmounted  by 
the  cross,  and  that  in  such  wise  that  he  appears  as  holding 
this  in  his  left  hand,  and  in  his  right  a  labarum  standard. 
And  only  after  Justinian  I. — under  whom,  moreover,  Victoria 
is  still  occasionally  represented  as  the  bearer  of  the  cross- 
surmounted  ball — does  that  mode  of  presentation  become 
gradually  the  prevalent  one,  according  to  which  the  labariuii 
ts  Still  to  be  entirely  replaced  by  the  later  symbol  of  the  imperial 
globe;  inasmuch  as  the  bust  of  the  helmed  (or  crowned) 
emperor  holds   in  his  right  hand  the  globe  surmounted  by 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  I  5  ^ 

the  cross.^  Thus  the  warlike  symbol  yields  to  the  more 
pacific  one,  the  "emblem  of  victorious  power"  gives  place 
to  the  more  peaceful  but  yet  more  majestic  emblem  of  the 
subjugation  of  the  world  through  faith  in  the  Crucified.'-^ 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  with  this  change 
the  new  Christendom  became  in  reality  an  empire  of  peace. 
Neither  in  the  hand  of  the  Merovingian  kings  from  Clotaire  I., 
(511 — 5'5i),  nor  of  the  western  emperors  from  Charlemagne, 
nor  in  that  of  the  Byzantine  successors  of  Justinian  or  of 
other  rulers  of  Eastern  Europe,  e.g.,  of  the  Servian  hero-king 
Stephan  Dushan  (about  1350),  does  the  imperial  globe 
indicate  that  those  making  use  of  it  were  "augmenters  of  the 
kingdom  "  only  in  a  peaceful  sense ;  any  more  than  the  other 
cruciform  emblems  upon  the  coins,  diplomas,  documents,  etc., 
of  these  rulers  imply  that  they  engaged,  as  the  protectors  of 
Christianity,  only  in  the  works  of  peace.^  Yea,  even  popes 
and  bishops,  who  were  wont  from  the  time  of  the  pontificate 
of  Vigilius(538 — 555)  solemnly  to  prefix  the  great  Latin  cross 
to  their  signature  at  the  subscription,  as  also  to  distinguish 
themselves  by  the  golden  cross  for  the  neck  {iyKoXiriov,  crux 
collaria),  and  later  by  the  crux  gcstatoria,  carried  before  them 
in  their  processions,"*  did  not  thereby  protect  themselves 
against  the  ever-recurring  necessity  of  exchanging  their 
spiritual  ornaments  for  military  harness,  and    armed,  if  not 

'  See  the  very  accurate  account  (illustrated  with  engravings  of  the  most  im- 
portant coins)  given  of  the  course  of  historic  development,  here  briefly  sketched, 
in  the  art.  "  Numismatique  chretienne"  of  Martigny,  Diet,  des  Antiqii.  Chrct.; 
n'so  Stockbauer,  S.  193  if.,  whose  statements,  however,  are  less  exact,  e.g.,  that 
Arcadius  first  represented  the  globe  of  the  empire  in  the  hand  of  Victoria. 

*  Comp.  on  the  one  hand  Rapp,  S.  134  of  the  Abhdlg.,  on  the  other  Suidas,  in 
Stockbauer,  S.  104. 

^  On  different  other  points  belonging  to  this  subject  (affixing  the  cross  at  the 
beginning  of  diplomas,  from  the  fifth  century ;  instead  of  the  name  of  the  sub- 
scription, from  the  sixth  century  ;  the  blood-red  crosses  subsctibed  by  the  Byzantine 
emperors,  green  by  their  princes,  gold-coloured  by  the  kings  of  England,  etc.)  see 
Stockbauer,  S.  123.  On  other  things  of  a  kindred  nature  :  Martigny,  p.  186  stq 
Comp.  also  Gretser's  dissertation  :  "De  globo  crucigero" — (/?<.•  cntcc,  torn.  iii.  1.  i. 
c.  20). 

■•  The  latter  distinction,  at  first  belonging  only  to  the  popes,  was  from  the  time 
of  Innocent  III.  conceded  also  to  the  patriarchs,  and  from  that  of  Gregory  IV.  t 
all  archbishops.     See  A^igusti,  Ar&haol.,  i,  199. 


158  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

with  the  sword,  yet  like  Christian  I.  of  Mainz  with  heavy- 
battle  clubs,  to  take  the  field.  This  tendency  to  transform 
the  missionary  work  of  the  Church  into  a  rude  trade  of 
war  attains  its  climax  in  THE  CRUSADES.  The  peaceful 
ploughshare  of  the  Church  is,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  pro- 
phetic description  (Micah  iv.  3  ;  Isaiah  ii.  4),  beaten  into  the 
sharp  spear,  into  the  battle  sword  ;  instead  of  the  Saviour, 
Ares  or  Thor  would  seem  to  go  forth  in  Christian  armour 
against  the  hosts  of  unbelievers  fighting  under  the  banner  of 
the  crescent.  But  even  here  the  sacred  symbol  of  Chris- 
tianity is  active  in  a  manner  not  merely  destructive,  even 
here  it  creates  fresh  and  ever  fresh  forms  of  blessing-fraught 
labour  in  the  service  of  Christ.  The  crusades  call  forth  tlie 
SPIRITUAL  ORDERS  OF  CHIVALRY,  the  order  of  the  Knights  of 
St.  John  as  the  first  of  these,  and  afterwards  those  organised 
upon  this  model  ; — a  succession  of  valiant,  self-forgetting 
hero  hosts,  resplendent  also  through  works  of  ministering 
love  who,  zealously  cherishing  at  once  the  outer  and  the 
inner  missionary  principle  of  the  Church,  fight  under  the 
banner  of  the  cross.  The  manifold  fruitful  reactions  which, 
spite  of  the  degeneration  or  stagnation  of  the  majority  which 
early  ensued,  proceeded  from  them,  call  for  no  further  expla- 
nation on  our  part.  And  not  merely  as  an  instructive 
chapter  of  heraldry,  as  the  "  diplomatic  staurology,"  the 
science  of  the  crosses  and  stars  of  the  knightly  orders,  have 
the  various  crosses  of  the  knights  of  the  orders  obtained  an 
abiding  significance.^     Their  noble  exemplar,  the  cross  of  the 

¥  Knights  of  St.  John,  or  Maltese  cross  (Fig.  98),. is  still, 
^  I  ^  upon  the  battle-fields  of  the  present  day,  in  the  form  of 
Fig.  98.  the  red  cross  of  ministering  love  and  Samaritan's  com- 
passion, as  much  beloved  as  it  is,  in  the  form  of  the  iron  cross 
of  valour,  terrible  to  the  foeman,  and  gladdening  and  inspiring 
for  the  sons  of  the  fatherland. 

Certainly  the  original  significance  of  the  emblem,  as  aiming 
at  the  representation  and  diffusion  of  the  name  of  Christ  in 
missionary    effort,    has   here    been    gradually   lost   sight   of 

'  Coaip.  Stockbauer,  S.  123. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES,  I  59 

This  symbol  has,  as  it  were,  passed  over  into  the  domain  of 
the  world,  has  become  entirely  secularised  in  its  character 
and  efifects,  after  it  had  already,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  be- 
longed half  to  the  spiritual,  half  to  the  temporal  domain. 
But  yet,  in  those  cases  where  it  was  subservient  to  the  mis- 
sionary principle,  as  the  purely  spiritual  expression  thereof, 
the  cross  of  the  Churches  of  the  Middle  Ages  has  repeatedly 
yielded  results  which  lay  claim  to  the  possession  of  an  ex- 
emplary value  for  every  age  of  Christianity  and  its  missions. 
The  conquering  missionary  activity  of  the  Christian  Middle 
Ages  too  has  frequently  waged  its  victorious  warfare  by  the 
power  of  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  has  forced  many  a 
rude  tribe  to  the  acknowledging  of  Christ,  more  by  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit  than  by  any  outward  force.  And  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  this,  the  symbol  of  the  cross  has  played  a  very 
important  part.  The  pious  missionary  priests  and  monks  of 
the  ancient  British  Church  of  the  sixth  to  the  eighth  century 
— a  Church  so  richly  endowed  with  the  apostolic  gifts — who, 
either  alone  or  in  parties  of  the  significant  number  of  twelve, 
proclaimed  the  Gospel  to  the  Celtic  or  Germanic  tribes  of 
Central  and  Western  Europe,  were  wont  as  a  rule  to  do  so  by 
going  forth  into  the  villages,  gathering  the  people  around  a 
cross  set  up  in  the  open  air,  and  preaching  to  them  the  word 
of  life.^  Many  a  proud  cathedral,  many  a  cloister  dispensing 
light  and  blessing  in  the  darkest  ages,  many  a  bishop's  see 
continuing  to  exist  even  to  the  present  day,  has  sprung  from 
the  huts  of  hermits,  of  which  the  first  beginning  was  formed  by 
a  simple  cross  made  of  the  fresh  boughs  of  trees,  perhaps  of 
twigs  of  hazel  or  branches  of  cornel  wood,  like  that  on  which 
Gallus  and  Hiltibald  were  wont  to  hang  their  little  caskets  of 
relics.^     And  not  merely  the  missionaries  of  the  school  of  St. 

'  Beda,  Hist.  EccL,  iii.  26.  Comp.  Ebrarcl,  Die  irosckottisc/u-  Missioiskhr/w  dcs 
6,  7  und  8  y/idls.,  S.  432. 

■'  Vita  S.  Gain,  in  Mabillon,  Acta  SS.  0.  S.  Bened.,  t.  ii. ,  p.  223.  (According 
as  we  here  read,  vii-ga?ii  colurneam  ^  coluriiain,  or  ■ptrha^is  cornea >n — comp.  Virg., 
ALn.  iii.  22  :  virgulta  cornea — must  we  understand  the  hazel  or  the  cornelian  cherry 
to  be  the  wood  out  of  which  Gallus  plaited  his  cross.)  Of  the  somewhat  earlier 
Kentigern  too  (sixth  century),  his  biographer  Jocelyn  relates  that  he  erected  crosses 
wherever  he  went  in  his  journeyings.     (Ebrard,  as  before.') 


l6o  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Patrick  and  Columba  observed  this  custom ;  the  Benedic- 
tines in  the  service  of  Rome  likewise  made  use  of  the  cross 
as  their  ploughshare  for  breaking  up  the  hard  hearts  of  the 
heathen.  They  too  fought,  though  often  it  may  be  in  a  spirit 
but  Httle  evangelical,  under  the  banner  of  the  blessing- 
fraught  symbol  of  redemption,  the  first  solemn  signing  of 
which  over  the  hosts  of  their  catechumens  (the  so-called 
prima  signatio,  piinisigne)  on  every  occasion  denoted  the 
beginning  of  their  work  of  conversion,  the  first  preparatory 
occupation  of  a  new  mission  field.  Winfried  and  Ansgar, 
Brun  of  Querfurt,  and  Otto  of  Bamberg,  went  forth  armed 
with  the  cross  as  their  weapon  upon  their  no  less  perilous 
than  glorious  wanderings  among  the  heathen  nations  of  their 
day.  That  which  is  related  concerning  the  Franciscan  John 
de  Marignola  of  Florence,  of  about  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  a  bold  pioneer  of  more  recent  attempts  on  the 
part  of  Rome  at  missionising  among  the  peoples  of  India — 
namely,  that  surrounded  by  hosts  of  his  new  converts  he  had 
erected  upon  the  point  of  a  rock  at  Cape  Comorin  a  large 
stone  cross  (having  the  arms  of  the  Pope  and  a  Latin  and 
Indian  inscription  thereupon),  and  had  anointed  it  with  oil, 
and  solemnly  consecrated  it,  as  a  memorial  of  the  blessing 
upon  his  labours  in  this  region — is  typically  significant  with 
regard  to  the  whole  missionary  effort  of  the  Romish  Church 
in  the  Middle  Ages — perhaps,  also,  even  in  more  recent 
times.  For  if  not  entirely  in  this  form,  yet  with  rites  and 
performances  in  general  akin  to  these,  have  its  messengers  far 
and  wide  taken  possession  of  provinces  newly  added  to  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  untroubled  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
these  domains,  thus  externally  conquered,  were  to  be  led  to 
an  inner  and  true  appropriation  of  salvation  in  Christ.  From 
the  evangelical  standpoint,  this  missionary  work  may  be  con- 
demned as  being  too  external,  too  mechanical  and  legal  ;  we 
may  reject  the  thought  of  its  possible  resuscitation  in  the 
present  day  as  a  monstrosity  in  glaring  contradiction  with  the 
relations  and  requirements  of  our  age ;  may  regard  conver- 
sions of  whole  nations  at  once  as  a  thing  no   longer  pos- 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  l6l 

sible,  and  may  therefore  direct  our  efforts  essentially  to  the 
winning  of  individuals  or  of  comparatively  small  circles  : 
yet  with  all  this  an  ideal  exemplary  value,  even  for  later 
ages  of  Christianity,  cannot  be  denied  to  the  labours  of 
those  missionaries  who  overran  the  heathen  world  during  the 
thousand  years  which  preceded  the  Reformation.  And  in 
the  lustre  of  the  cross  which  glorifies  their  heroic  deeds, 
their  sufferings,  and  their  martyrdoms,  we  cannot  refuse  to 
acknowledge  the  light-giving  operation,  the  "glory  with 
unveiled  face  reflecting  itself  in  us,"  of  Him  who  is  the 
effulgence  of  the  glory  of  God  and  the  perfect  expression  of 
His  nature  (2  Cor.  iii.  18 ;  iv.  4;  Heb.  i,  3). 


B.    THE  GLORIFYING    OF  THE  MAJESTY  OF  THE    CROSS  IN 
THE  CULTUS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

The  different  modes  of  the  cultic  appHcation  of  the  cross 
in  the  Church  from  the  time  of  Constantine  arrange  them- 
selves under  three  main  points  of  view.  They  consist  either 
in  the  use  of  the  invisible  cross  drawn  by  the  hand,  or  in  the 
application  of  visible  crosses  or  crucifixes  in  connection  with 
religious  acts,  or  in  the  observance  of  Church  festivals  in  honour 
of  the  cross. 

The  custom  which  we  have  shown  in  Chapter  HI.  to  exist 
at  any  rate  early  in  the  second  century  of  the  Christian  era, 
namely,  of  CROSSING  oneself,  now  attains  to  an  ever  more 
widely  extended  significance.  Even  the  most  trifling  occa- 
sions and  objects  of  the  outward  life  were  rendered  sacred  by 
the  invisible  crucesignation,  the  Christian  antitype  of  circum- 
cision according  to  Augustine  {Senn.  160).  This  sign  is 
made  upon  the  drinking  vessel  which  is  to  be  borne  to  the 
lips,  upon  the  food  to  be  enjoyed,  as  well  as  upon  the  mouth 
of  a  person  sneezing  /  upon  forehead  and  breast  at  going  to 
sleep  and  rising  ;  upon  the  forehead  also  of  soldiers  in  war, 

»  Sophronius,  Frat.  Spirit.,  p.  ix.,  Cotel.  Gregory  of  Tours,  De  Miiai. 
S,  Martini,  i.  20. 

1  I 


1 62  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

immediately  before  the  sounding  of  the  signal  for  battle.^ 
The  magic  exorcistic  use  is  even  transferred,  from  the  pro- 
ceeding with  a  view  to  restoration  in  the  case  of  possessed 
persons,  to  an  analogous  process  in  the  case  of  animals  which 
have  fallen  sick.^  It  finds  its  application  in  the  worship  of 
the  Church  :  at  each  prayer  ;  at  the  reading  of  the  Gospel, 
when  the  whole  congregation  has  to  stand  up  and  sign  itself 
with  the  cross  ;  before  the  sermon,  which  the  bishop  or 
presbyter  does  not  begin  without  invoking  a  blessing  by 
making  the  sign  of  the  cross ;  at  the  Trisagion,  as  in  general 
on  the  mention  of  sacred  names ;  sometimes  also  at  the 
recitation  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  especially  on  the 
acknowledging  of  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh.  In  the  sacra- 
ment of  baptism,  a  solemn  marking  of  the  forehead  and 
breast  of  the  candidate  with  the  sacred  sign,  the  obsignatio 
fidei  or  the  signacuhtm,  immediately  introduces  the  baptismal 
act  in  the  narrower  sense,  or  the  immersion  (in  the  West  from 
the  fourteenth  century,  the  sprinkling).  In  the  East  this 
crossing  of  the  child  presented  for  baptism  thrice  takes  place, 
as  does  also  the  anointing  with  oil  therewith  connected  ;  in 
the  West  this  takes  place  only  once,  but  accompanied  with  a 
thrice  breathing  upon  the  mouth,  as  a  sign  of  the  communi- 
cation of  the  Spirit  (John  xx.  22).^  In  like  manner  the  signing 
of  the  cross  takes  place  in  connection  with  the  sacraments  of 
confirmation  and  of  the  anointing  of  priests,  in  each  case  in 
combination  with  acts  of  anointing.  The  most  frequent  use 
of  the  crucesignation  is  at  the  mass  and  the  celebration  of 
the  supper ;  for  the  right  observance  of  the  latter  the  priest 

'  Prudentius,  Adv.  SymniacJi.,  ii.  712  : 

Hujus  adoratis  altaribus,  et  cruce  fronti 
Inscripta,  cecinere  tubae,  etc. 
Compare  hx^^dit/ieni.,  hymn.  vi.  129  : 

Fac,  quum  vocante  somno 
Castum  petis  cubile, 
Frontem  locumqiie  cordis 
Crucis  figura  signes. 

*  Chrysostom,  in  the  passage  adduc       above,  p.  152.     Comp.  PelHcia,  Eccles. 
polit.,  iv.  190. 

^  Augiisti,  ArchdoL,  ii.  441  f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 63 

repeatedly  crosses,  not  only  himself,  but  also  the  missal,  the 
altar,  the  eucharistic  elements  before  and  after  consecration, 
and  finally  the  congregation  at  the  benediction.^  While  the 
eighth  book  of  the  Apostolic  Constitutions  as  yet  only 
expressly  prescribes  a  single  crossing  at  the  beginning  of 
the  sacred  action,  and  while  as  yet  the  Micrologiis  of  Ivo 
(about  iioo)  requires  eitJiev  one,  or  three,  or  fivefold  appli- 
cation of  the  signing  of  the  cross  in  the  sacred  oblation,  but 
directly  forbids  a  two  or  fourfold  use  of  the  same,^  the 
various  recensions  of  the  Ordo  Romanus  gradually  raise  the 
number  of  crossings  necessary  for  the  mass  canon  from 
three  to  twenty-five.  So  many  at  least  did  Innocent  III. 
appoint ;  but  the  later  redactions  of  the  Roman  missal  have 
brought  the  number  to  fifty-five  in  all,  thus  surpassing  the 
Syrian  liturgy  (which  prescribes  thirty-six  of  them)  by  nearly 
twenty.^ — The  special  manner  and  form  too  of  the  crossing 
gradually  underwent  different  modifications,  and  gave  rise 
to  several  sharply  divergent  ecclesiastical  traditions.  The 
ancient  Church  appears  to  have  known  no  other  mode  than 
that  of  the  marking  of  the  brow,  the  mouth,  or  the  other 
objects  of  crucesignation  with  one  extended  finger  of  the 
right  hand."*  In  place  of  this,  Greek  Christendom  in  the  lapse 
of  time,  eventually  also  in  its  leading  Creed,  the  Coiif. 
ortJiodoxa  (Pt.  I.,  Quest.  51),  declared  obligatory  the  custom 
of  the  so-called  Greek  crossing,  according  to  which  with  the 
joined  three  forefingers  of  the  right  hand  (while  the  little 
finger  and  ring-finger  remain  closed)  first  mouth,  then  breast, 
then  right,  and  then  left  shoulder,  must  be  touched.     The 

'  Bellarmine,  De  missa,  1.  ii.  c.  15:  "Nam  signo  crucis  se  ipsum  sacerdos 
consigiiat  :  item  librum,  altare,  res  ofiferendas  et  oblatas,  denique  populum,  dum 
ei  benedicit."     Comp.  already  Bonaventura,  Expositio  missa,  cap.  iv. 

-  For   the   symbolical  reason  :   " quia   sei/iel  exprimitur   ad  essentice 

divinae  unitatem,  ter  ad  personarum  trinitatem,  quinqne  ad  quinqiie  plagas  Domini 
reprsesentandas  "  {Micrologiis  de  observatt.  eccl.  c.  14*).  Somewhat  otherwise  Bona- 
ventura, /.  c. 

^  See  on  this  point  Augiisti,  as  before,  S.  730  f. 

^  Sozom.,  E.  H.,  vii.  27  ;  Epiphan.,  Har.  30,  12  (of  a  certain  Joseph  :  aravpoD 
atppayida  T(p  dyyeiu}  5ta  rod  idiov  daKTv\ov);  Cyril,  Catech.,  13,  sub  fin.;  Sophro- 
nius,  Prat,  spirit,  ix. 


1 64  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

schismatic  denominations  of  the  East  depart  to  some  extent 
from  this  practice  :  the  Armenian  monophysites,  as  well  as 
the  majority  of  the  Russian  Raskolnics,  combine  only  index 
and  middle  finger,  single  sects  of  Russia  the  thumb,  index, 
and  ring  finger  in  crossing  themselves.^  In  western  Christen- 
dom there  prevails,  from  about  the  time  of  the  eighth  century, 
and  under  the  special  influence  of  the  Benedictine  monks,^ 
the  Latin  rite  of  crucesignation,  consisting  in  the  touching 
of  the  forehead,  breast,  then  the  left,  and  finally  the  right 
shoulder  with  the  open  right  hand.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
German  cross  is  also  permitted  here,  which  is  drawn  with  the 
extended  thumb  of  the  right  hand,  upon  which  the  index  finger 
with  the  others  falls  transversely,  the  left  hand  resting  at  the 
same  time  upon  the  breast. — Further,  there  belong  also  to  the 
different  forms  of  the  usual  cross — the  cross  represented  in 
actions — the  early  ecclesiastical  custom  of  praying  with  uplifted 
or  outstretched  hands,  as  well  as  the  custom,  becoming  general 
in  the  West  since  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century,  of  fold- 
ing the  hands.  The  former  and  earlier  one  was  characterised 
by  Fathers  like  Cyprian,  Ambrose,  Augustine,  etc. ;  the  other 
and  later,  by  Pope  Nicholas  I.  in  his  directions  to  the 
Bulgarians,  as  an  imitation  of  the  Cross  of  Christ.^ 

The  manifold  employment  of  this  invisible  or  usual  sign  of 
the  cross  {crux  nsnalis,  transicns)  is  accompanied  with  a  no 
less  frequent  employment  of  the  visible  or  FIGURATIVELY 
REPRESENTED  CROSS  {critx  exeviplata).  Crosses,  simple  or 
more  or  less  ornamented,  become,  above  all,  an  indispensable 
ornament  of  churches  and  their  altars.  "  No  one  shall  build 
a  church,  until  the  bishop  has  come  and  raised  the  cross 
there,"  is  read  in  a  capitulary  of  Charlemagne.  Before  this 
Roman  laws  of  Justinian,  and  of  emperors  still  earlier,  had 

'  Meiz,  art.  "Kreuz,"  "  Kieuzeszeichen,"  in  Heizog,  viii.,  S.  57;  Gass, 
iiyvibolik  der griechischen  Kirche,  S.  184  f. 

■''  Pellicia,  iv.  191. 

^  Cyprian.,  Ep.  ad  Fortu7iat.,  p.  276  ;  Ambrosius,  Dc  crt4cc,  Scrmo  56  ;  Augus- 
tinus,  De  Tiiii.,  iv.  15  ;  De  Civit.  Dei,  x.  8  ;  comp.  also  Pi-udentius,  Pcristepli., 
Hymn.  6. — Also  Xicolai  I.  Papcc  Rcsp.  ad  Bulgaror.jronsulia  (inHarduin,  Condi., 
I.  v.,  p.  371). 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 65 

contained  similar  ordinances.^    "To  set  up  the  cross"  {(navpou 
7rr)yvvecv,  crnceni  figcrc)  becomes  thus  equivalent  to  "  to   lay 
the  foundation  of  a  church;"  just  as  "  to  offer  at  the  cross,"  or 
"before  the  cross,"  becomes  equivalent  to  "to  offer  upon  the 
altar,"  i.e.,  "  read  mass."    Besides  the  altar  crosses,  which  were 
generally  of  silver  or  gold,  and  were  sumptuously  adorned 
with    pearls    or    jewels,   great    crosses    in   the    sanctuarium 
(chancel)  at  the  east  end  of  the  church,  or  above  the  entrance 
(at  the  west)  of  the  building,  or  on  the  triumphal  arch  (the 
so-called  crux  truiniphalis),  or  finally  upon  the  ambon  of  the 
lector,  the  reading-desk  (hence  the  formula,  de  criice  cantarc), 
served  for  the  adorning  of  the  house  of  God.^     Great  crosses, 
often  colossally  great,  of  wood  or  stone,  were  set  up,  not  only 
in  the  churchyards,  but  also  frequently  at  the  entrances  of 
towns  or  villages,  by  the  highways  and  public  places,  in  front 
of  princely  or  private  dwellings,  in  the  court  of  monasteries,  etc. 
From  these  great  and  prominent  signs  the  localities  in  question 
obtained  their  names,  as  "  Crossway,"  "  Crossplace,"   "  Cross- 
passage"  (cloister),  "Cross  Hill,"  etc.  [Comp.  "Crouch  Field," 
"  Crouch  End,"  "  Pen-y-Groes,"  etc.]     Under  such  public  and 
always  accessible  crosses  transgressors  were  wont  especially 
to   seek  their  asylum   {ad  crucem   confugere)  ;    the   ordeal  of 
the  cross-trial — i.e.,  the  trial  how  long  one  could  stand  with 
the    arms  outstretched  crosswise,  such  as  was  imposed,  e.g., 
in  charges  of  adultery  upon  both  parties,  the  man  and  the 
woman — was  wont   to   be    made;   and  refractory  monks  or 
nuns  were  wont  to  undergo  their  penance  of  "standing  at 
the  cross"  {stare,  vadere  ad  criicem)?     At  the  consecration  of 
churches  and  churchyards,  the  cross  played  a  prominent  part ; 
namely,  at  the  consecration  of  graveyards,  the  solemn  bearing 
in  and  setting  up  of  the  great  principal  cross ;  at  the  conse- 
cration of  churches,  the  signing  of  the  walls  in  twelve  different 
places  with  the  chrisma  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  on  the  part  of 
the  consecrating  bishop  or  abbot,  as  prescribed  in  the  Ordo 

^  See  the  passages  in  Merz,  S.  59. 

2  Augusti,  Beitrixge,  i.  1 66;  Merz,  S.  58  f. 

3  Du  Cange,  Glossar.  man.,  sub  voc.  Crux  (jndicinm  cmcis);  Augusti,  Hand//., 
X\.  428  f.  ;  Zbckler,  Krit.  Gcschkhte  der  Askese,  S.  67  f. 


1 66  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Roinanus} — Presently  there  remains  no  Christian  grave,  no 
longer  a  coffin,  without  some  kind  of  adornment  in  the  form 
of  a  cross.  The  living,  too,  place  themselves  under  the  pro- 
tecting influence  of  the  sacred  emblem  in  the  most  diverse 
ways ;  paint  the  same  upon  the  walls  of  their  houses  and 
bed-chambers ;  adorn  therewith  doors,  windows,  the  most 
varied  household  utensils;  pave  their  very  floors  with  crosses 
— at  least  in  the  East  for  a  time,  until  the  second  TruUan 
Council  forbade  the  objectionable  practice;'"  wear  upon  the 
neck  little  crosses  of  gold,  silver,  etc.  (often  richly  ornamented, 
and  inlaid  with  relics),  as  amulets  or  phylacteries  {encolpid)^ 
or  put  on,  as  the  priests  at  the  reading  of  the  mass,  sump- 
tuous garments  embroidered  with  great  crosses,  and  such-like. 
As  abundant  sources  for  the  impulses  to,  and  models  for, 
the  development  of  Christian  art,  these  last-named  customs 
must  again  be  spoken  of  in  the  following  division — that  on 
the  history  of  art.  Here  we  have  still  further  to  refer  to 
some  religious  solemnities  in  which  crosses  play  a  prominent 
part.  Thus  to  the  Greek  ritual  for  the  consecration  of  the 
altar-cross,  the  o-ravpoir'q'yLov,  an  act  of  benediction  to  be 
performed  at  the  setting  up  of  new  wooden  altar-crosses,  for 
which  the  eastern  EucJiologunn  prescribes  a  pretty  compli- 
cated liturgy ;  so  to  the  general  adoration  of  the  cross  prac- 
tised in  the  West  on  Good  Friday,  on  which  day  the  cross 
is  presented  upon  the  altar  to  receive  solemn  expressions  of 
devotion  in  the  form  of  kneeling  before  it,  kissing  it,  etc. — a 
custom  observed  in  the  diocese  of  Milan,  in  accordance  with 
Ambrose's  liturgy,  on  each  Friday  during  the  whole  passion 
season  f  in  like  manner  to  that  other  Good  Friday  custom, 
according  to  which  the  cross  was  covered  and  let  down  into 
a  v^ault,  to  be  drawn  up  again  as  soon  as  Easter  morning 
came ;    lastly,  to   the   processions  or  supplicatory  journeys, 

'  Et  facial  episcopus  crucem  per  parietes  cum  pollice  suo  de  ipso  chrismate  iu 
12  locis.     {Ord.  Rom.)     Comp.  Du  Cange,  i.  1273. 

^  Concil  Trull.,  ii.,  c.  73.  Comp.  Ruffinus,  H.  C,  ii.  29;  Cyiill.  Alex.,  contra 
yiilian.,  1.  vi. ,  p.  196. 

^Comp.  A.  Fieibe,  Der  Karfreitag  in  der  deutschen  Diclatung,  Giitersloh, 
Z877.  " 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    x\GES.  1 6/ 

originally — as  is  shown  even  in  their  rise  at  Constantinople 
in  the  time  of  Chrysostom,  about  the  year  400 — nothing 
else  than  the  triumphal  bearing  about  of  splendid  crosses, 
accompanied  with  the  singing  of  hymns;  later  also — with 
reference  to  the  carrying  about  of  the  station-cross  {crux 
stationalis),  as  well  as  other  crosses  and  cross-banners,  which 
formed  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  these  processions — 
called  simply  cruces,  cross-processions, — bearing,  moreover, 
special  characteristic  appellations  (such  as  cruces  bannales, 
processions  within  the  boundaries  of  the  parish  ;  cruces  nigra;, 
mournful  processions,  those  taking  part  in  then,  being 
dressed  in  black,  and  the  altar  and  pulpit  draped  in  black, 
etc.),  according  to  their  special  character  and  significance,  and 
conferring  upon  the  whole  week  after  Rogation  Sunday,  the 
Ascension  week,  in  which  they  were  regularly  held  in  great 
numbers,  the  name  of  "cross- week, "^ — Like  the  crux  usualis, 
the  crjix  exemplata,  too,  was  modified  in  traditionally  varying 
forms,  among  which  the  following  are  deserving  of  special 
notice  :  the  "  common  cross  "  {crux  ordinaria)  of  the  western 
countries  (Fig.  99)  ;  the  "  Greek,"  or  equal-armed  cross  (Fig. 
100) ;  the  double  cross  (also  called  patriarchal  or  Lorraine 
cross),  and  frequently  to  be  met  with  as  well  among  the 
Byzantines  as  in  the  West  (Fig.    loi)  ;    the  papal  cross,  or 


t 


•f 


t 


Fig.  99.  Fig.  100.  Fig.  loi. 

triple  cross  of  the  western  lands  (Fig.  102)  ;  the  triple  cross, 
or  cross  with  eight  ends,  of  the  Russian  sectaries  (Fig.  103), 
of  which  the  lowermost  transverse  bar  is  said  to  represent 
the  footboard  of  the  cross  of  the  Lord ;  finally,  the  ordinary 

'  Du  Cange,  i.  1276.  Luther,  Sermon  on  Rogation  Sunday  (Works,  Bd.  12, 
Seite  142).  Comp.  the  author's  GescJiichte  dcr  Askese,  S.  275;  Merz,  S.  59. — An 
interestmg  attempt  to  trace  back  most  of  the  Christian  processional  celebrations 
to  the  previous  heathen  supplications  of  the  nature  of  the  Ambarvalia  (in  which, 
of  course,  the  use  of  the  cross  would  then  form  their  specifically  Christian 
element),  is  made  by  Pfannenschmidt,  in  Schenkel's  All^.  A'iir/iL  Zeitschrift, 
1872,  S.  517  ff. 


1 68  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

church  cross  of  the  Russians  (Fig.  104),  (with  chains  for 
fixing  it  to  the  cupola  of  the  tower  or  to  the  ridge  of  the 
roof.)^ 


t      i 


Fig.  102.  Fig.  103.  Fig.  104. 

To  the  glorifying  of  the  cross  were  also  devoted  several 
special  ecclesiastical  FESTIVALS  of  yearly  recurrence,  upon 
the  origin  and  special  signification  of  which  there  rests,  it 
is  true,  a  good  deal  of  obscurity.  The  earliest  appears  to 
be  that  festival  of  the  EXALTATION  OF  THE  CROSS  (a-Tav- 
pcocnfMO<i  rj/jLepa  or  aravpocfidveta  ;  Jest,  exaltationis  S.  Crucis), 
which  fell  on  the  14th  of  September.  Western  authorities, 
bearing  date  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  as  the  Acta 
of  the  Egyptian  ascetic  Mary  (f  about  the  year  400)  and 
those  of  the  Patriarch  Eutychius  of  Constantinople  (f  582), 
explain  it  as  having  reference  to  the  discovery  of  the  true 
cross  by  Helena ;  some  sources  even,  though  it  is  true 
very  late  and  very  confused  ones,  date  it  back  to  Con- 
stantine's  vision  of  the  cross.  At  any  rate,  it  had  already 
existed  for  some  time  before  the  recovery  by  the  emperor 
Heraclius  (in  the  year  628)  of  the  Holy  Cross,  stolen  by 
the  Persians  under  King  Chosru  H.,  at  his  conquest  of 
Jerusalem  in  the  year  614;  as  of  course  before  its  solemn 
re-erection  in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  undertaken 
by  the  same  emperor  three  years  after  its  recovery.  The 
latter  fact  became  henceforth  the  main  object  of  the  cele- 
bration, without  however — in  the  East  at  least — pushing  out 

'  Comp.  Stockbauer,  S.  123  f.,  where  also  prominence  is  given  to  the  fact  that 
the  form  (Fig.  105)  is  by  no  means  an  excUisively  western  one,  but  is,  strictly 
speaking,  the  prevailing  form  among  the  Greeks  (in  a  higher  degree  than  Fig. 


+ 


Fig.  105.  Fig.  106. 

106).     He  appeals  in  proof  to  Didron,  Amurles  Arch.,  v.  323. — On  the  Russian 
Raskonic  cross,  with  its  eight  ends,  compare  also  Ausland,  1874.     No.  10,  S.  193. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 69 

of  view  the  older  reference  to  the  previous  exaltation  or 
glorification  of  the  cross  under  Constantine  and  Helena. 
The  ritual  of  the  Russian  Greek  Church  contains  distinct 
allusions  as  well  to  the  fact  of  the  temporary  removal  of  the 
cross  by  the  unbelievers,  and  of  the  humble  procession  of 
penitents,  in  which  Heraclius  (at  the  instance  of  those  who 
had  been  taken  captive  with  the  cross,  and  of  the  patriarch 
Zacharias  who  had  been  liberated  by  him)  is  said — barefoot 
and  without  crown  or  purple — to  have  borne  the  recovered 
relic  upon  his  shoulders  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  as  well  as  to 
the  miracles  of  the  earlier  legend  of  the  discovery  of  the  cross. 
Of  that  serious  and  humbling  fact  we  are  reminded  by  the 
vigils,  accompanied  with  severe  fasting,  with  which  the 
celebration  begins,  amidst  the  chanting  of  now  plaintive  and 
lowly,  now  triumphant  stanzas.  The  earlier  legend,  especially 
the  miracle  of  the  restoration  of  the  dead  person  to  life,  which 
is  said  to  have  convinced  Bishop  Macarius  of  the  genuineness 
of  the  discovery  of  Helena,  is  recalled  to  mind  by  certain 
symbolic  actions  in  the  principal  religious  service,  in  which 
the  bishop,  robed  in  full  canonicals,  holds  above  his  head 
the  great  altar  cross,  wreathed  with  flowers  and  plentifully 
adorned,  with  it  enters  through  the  low  and  narrow  northern 
door  into  the  church  (as  though  he  were  just  emerging  from 
the  grave),  then  standing  at  the  ambon  holds  the  heavy 
burden  for  a  considerable  time  above  his  head,  while  he 
alternately  bends  down  under  it,  and  then  again  triumphantly 
rises  with  it ;  and  while  at  the  same  time  the  assembled 
multitude  sings  the  Kyrie,  now  low,  now  with  a  loud  swelling 
voice,  etc.^  In  the  West,  where  Pope  Honorius  I.  (f  6^8)  is 
said  first  to  have  introduced  it,  there  remained  prescriptive 
only  the  reference  to  the  later  event ;  since  the  earlier, 
the  Discovery  of  the  Cross,  had  already  here  somewhat 
sooner  received  its  special  festival  (/.  mve7itionis  S.  Crticis), 
which  falls  on  the  3rd  of  May.  The  first  mention  of  this 
latter  is  that  in  the  Sacramentarmm  of  Gelasius   I.  (t  496), 

*  See,  on  the  whole  subject,  E.  v.  Muralt  (Miiraviefif):  Briefe  iiher  dcH  Gottes- 
dienst  der  morgenldndischen  Kirche  (1838),  S.  284  ff. 


I/O  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

where  already  are  given  certain  prayers,  to  be  addressed  to 
the  Saviour  who  died  upon  the  redeeming  wood  of  the  cross. 
Himself  the  true  "wood  (tree)  of  hfe  and  the  Restorer  of 
Paradise."     Then  it  is  mentioned  in  the  Sacramentarium  of 
Gregory  the  Great,  the  Martyrologium  of  Rheinau,  of  the 
eighth  century,  and  other  later  sources.     The  fixing  of  its 
celebration  on  the  3rd  of  May  remained,  it  is  true,  reserved 
for  the  Councils  of  Toulouse  (1229),  of  Cologne  (1281),  Liege 
(1287),  and  an  edict  of  Gregory  XI.  (1376). — A  third  festival 
belonging  to  this  category  is  that  one  peculiar  to  the  Eastern 
Church,  the  festival  of  the  ADORATION  OF  THE  CROSS  observed 
at  Mid-Lent,  i.e.  on  the  middle  Sunday  of  the  fasting  season, 
which  according  to  the  Greek  reckoning  coincides,  not  indeed 
in  point  of  time,  but  yet  of  signification,  with  the  Mid-Lent  of 
the  West,  the  Sunday  Lsetare,  as  a  resting-point  in  the  midst 
of  the  deprivations  and  exertions   of  the  Quadragesima — a 
doviinica  refcctionis.     The  Synaxarion  of  the  festival  brings 
into  prominence  this  its  significance,  in  the  words  :  "  As  the 
travellers  who  have  passed  over  a  long  and  rugged  road  and 
are  exhausted  by  the  effort,  if  they  anywhere  light  upon  a 
tree  with  shady  foliage,  rest  awhile  encamped  (beneath  it),  and 
traverse  the   remainder   of  their  journey  as   with    renewed 
youth  :    so  now  also  there  has  been    planted  by   the   holy 
fathers  in  the  midst  of  the  time  of  fasting  and  of  the  toil- 
some road  and  racecourse,  the  life-giving  cross,  which  yields 
us  comfort  and  refreshment,  and  renders  the  weary  cheerful 
and  equipped  for  further  toil  ;  ....  for  the  Cross  is  named 
the  Tree  of  Life,   and  it   is  so.     As  that  Tree  of  Life  was 
planted  in  the  midst  of  the  paradise  of  Eden,  so  have  our 
fathers  in  God  planted  the   cross  in  the  midst  of  the  sacred 
season   of  fasting,"   etc.^       In    like    manner   do   Theodorus 
Studites,  Theophylact,  and  Pseudo-Chrysostom  express  them- 
selves in  their  sermons  held  on  the  day  of  this  festival.     As  a 
sort  of  western  equivalent  for  the    adoration  of  the   cross, 
which    formed   the    object  of  this    eastern  festival,    appears 

'  P'rom  F.  Piper,  Ev.  Kalcnder,  1863,  S.  72  f.,  where  also  extracts  are  given  from 
he  sermons  of  Theod.  Stud.,  etc.,  presently  to  be  mentioned. 


IN    THE   CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  I /I 

moreover  the  custom  already  referred  to  of  kissing  the  cross 
on  Good  Friday. — Only  to  the  schismatic  churches  of  the 
East,  especially  the  Monophysites  of  Egypt  and  Abyssinia,  as 
well  as  the  Nestorians,  belongs  the  festival  of  the  Hiding  of  the 
Cross,  concerning  which  Assemani  has  given  more  particular 
account  in  his  Oriental  Library.^ 

It  was  only  to  be  expected  that  the  Church,  in  the  multi- 
plication of  the  forms  of  its  cross-cultus  carried  to  so  great  an 
extent,  should  not  be  spared  the  necessity  for  defending  this 
form  of  worship  against  Christian  or  non-Christian  opponents. 
The  orthodox  Apologetics,  addressed  to  those  who  called  in 
question  or  reviled  this  reverence  for  the  cross,  advanced  for 
the  most  part  parallel  with  the  defence  of  the  employment  of 
l)ictures  in  worship.  It  is  directed  sometimes  against  Jewish 
or  Mohammedan  censurers  of  all  pictorial  representation  of 
sacred  things,  sometimes  against  the  rigid  Puritanism  of 
iconoclastic  parties  in  the  East  or  in  the  West,  sometimes 
against  docetic,  spiritualistic,  or  grossly  sensuous  heathen  errors 
and  abuses — such  as  were  diffused  by  the  Manichzeans,  the 
Paulicians,  sometimes  also  the  Armenians — in  relation  to  the 
cross.- 

Against  the  Jews  the  right  of  Christendom  to  the  adora- 
tion of  the  cross  was  maintained,  i.e.,  by  that  Archbishop 
Gregentius  of  Taphar  in  Arabia,  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century  (f  552),  who  held,  in  the  presence  of  many  thousands 
of  Jews  and  Christians,  a  prolonged  disputation  with  the 
learned  Jew  Herban  on  the  truth  of  the  Gospel — a  disputa- 
tion which,  after  an  obstinate  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
Jewish  advocate  and  his  adherents,  is  said  to  have  ended  in  a 
brilliant  victory  over  this  man,  and,  as  it  is  asserted,  in  the 
conversion  and  baptism  of  half  a  million  Jews  !  The  notes  of 
the  discussion  contained  in  the  extract  show  that  Gregentius 
urged  almost  the  same  arguments,  drawn  from  Holy  Scrip- 
ture and  from  history,  against  the  genuinely  rabbinical  scep- 
ticism of  Herban,  as  were  employed,  e.g.,  by  Tertullian  and 
Cyprian  in  their  writings  against  the  Jews.     A  pretty  long 

'  Bibliothcc.  Or.,  T.  iii.,  P.  i.  pp.  84,  96,  525  ;  V.  ii.  p.  384. 


172  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

series  of  typical  Messianic  prophecies,  in  which  the  cross 
appears  as  the  great  power  for  redemption,  is  adduced  by 
him  ;  with  these,  however,  he  mingles  many  an  exceedingly 
artificial  interpretation,  e.g.,  that  of  the  plant  Sebek,  Gen.  xxii. 
13 — i.e.  the  thornbush  in  which  the  ram  was  caught  on  Mount 
Moriah — as  a  direct  type  of  the  Tree  of  Life  on  Calvary,  etc. 
When  the  Jew  objects  to  this  that  his  opponent  applies  the 
results  of  his  learned  study  of  Scripture  in  an  entirely  arbi- 
trary way,  just  as  it  suits  him,  and  wherever  he  so  much  as 
meets  with  a  piece  of  useful  wood  {utile  lignum)  in  the  Old  ' 
Testament,  represents  it  at  once  as  an  emblem  of  the  cross,^ 
Gregentius  protests  against  being  supposed  to  regard  only 
pieces  of  wood  as  types  of  the  cross  ;  rather  is  for  him  every 
lifting  up  of  the  hands,  every  military  standard,  every  crossing 
of  swords  in  war,  and  all  such  things,  a  prophecy  having 
reference  to  the  sacred  symbol."  So,  too,  with  later  anti- 
Jewish  apologetes,  e.g.,  with  Peter  the  Venerable,  do  such 
forms  of  argumentation  occasionally  recur.  In  all  the  negotia- 
tions between  Christians  and  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
cross,  as  an  object  of  aversion  for  the  one  and  of  reverence 
for  the  other,  plays  an  important  part.  Appearings  of  the 
sign  of  the  cross  in  the  sky,  as  once  in  the  time  of  Constantine, 
are  said  sometimes  to  have  lent  effectual  support  to  the 
evangelistic  preaching  of  the  missionaries.  Thus  on  the  i8th 
March,  141 5,  while  a  Franciscan  in  Spain  was  preaching  on 
the  Lord's  Supper,  a  cross,  white  as  snow,  is  said  to  have 
appeared  in  the  sky,  and  to  have  produced  the  instant  con- 
version of  a  hundred  and  twenty  Jews.^ 

The  well-known  subtilisation  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  on 
the  cross,  on  the  part  of  the  Manich^ans,  into  an  emblem 
of  "the  universal  suffering  of  the  soul  of  nature  and  of  man- 
kind," also  afforded  to  the  Fathers,  from  Augustine  down  to 
the   late    Middle    Ages,    abundant    occasion    for   apologetic 

'  Tu  hie  in  Vet.  Scriptura  si  utile  lignum  inveneris,  hora  est  illud  ut  assimiles 
tu<e  cruci,  etc. 

'■'  Gregentii  Tephrens.  archiepiscopi  disputat.  cum  Herbano  Jud. — BiM.  Fatr. 
Maxima  Ltigd.,  t.  vi.,  f.  1014  sq. 

^  Comp.  Kalkar,  Israel  zind  die  Kirche.  S,  27. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  1 73 

expositions.  Not  less  so  the  doctrine  of  the  Neo-Manicha?ans 
or  Paulicians,  according  to  which  Christ  Himself  is  the  all- 
animating  cross  :  reverence  for  the  wood  of  the  cross,  this 
symbol  of  the  curse,  thus  to  be  rejected  as  heathen  worship 
and  pernicious  idolatry.  Side  by  side  with  this  rigidly  puri- 
tanic aversion  for  any  and  every  act  of  reverence  for  the  cross, 
there  is  said,  however,  to  have  existed  in  the  very  same  sect 
the  superstitious  custom  of  placing  wooden  crosses  upon 
persons  dangerously  sick,  in  order  to  heal  them.i  The  stand- 
point, too,  of  the  Armenians  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  appears  to  have  been  one  of  opposition  to  the  cultus 
of  the  cross  on  the  part  of  the  orthodox,  mingled  at  the  same 
time  with  a  certain  grossly  materialistic  superstition.  They 
maintained  that  the  cross  was  sanctified  only  by  being  sprinkled 
with  the  blood  of  animal  sacrifices  :  sanctity  and  claim  to 
veneration  did  not  belong  to  it  in  and  of  itself  They  were 
accused  not  only  of  this  reprehensible  custom  of  smearing  it 
with  the  blood  of  sacrifices,  but  also  of  the  still  more  un- 
becoming practice  of  fastening  three  crosses  together,  and 
designating  them,  when  thus  bound,  the  Trinity.^  To  a 
Manichaian-Paulician  origin  must  we,  as  it  seems,  ascribe 
the  hostility  to  the  cross  on  the  part  of  the  sect  of  the 
BOGUMILI,  who,  according  to  the  "Panopha"  of  Euthymius, 
'•  refused  to  the  Divine  cross,  as  the  instrument  of  the  Re- 
deemer's death,  its  due  honour;"*  in  connection,  therefore,  with 
whose  trial  before  the  Inquisition  under  Alexius  Commenus 
(1118)  the  melodrama  was  enacted  with  the  two  piles  for 
execution,  of  which  the  one,  adorned  with  the  wooden  cross, 
was  to'  be  chosen  by  those  who  penitently  submitted,  as  the 
place  of  burning,  but  which  in  reality  proved  the  place  of 
mercy.     One  sees  a  purified,  mystic-evangelical,  refined  form 

1  I'et.  SicuL,  Hist.  Manic  Juror.,  p.  16  sqq.  ;    Photius,  Contra  recent.  Ma  nic/i,  i.  7. 

■^  Isaaci  Cathol.  (circa  1145),  Invectiva  in  Armenios  (particularly  against  the 
assertion  :  unctione  irrationalium  victimarum,  non  ejus  ipsius  expressione,  crucem 
sanctificari) :  BiOl.  max.  Ltigd.,  t.  xx,,  f.  1243a.  Comp.  also,  Incerti  auctoris  col 
lectanea  de  quibusdam  hseresibus,  ibid. ,  t.  xxvii. ,  fol.  623  seq. 

^  Euthym.  Zigad.  PanopL,  tit.  23,  No.  14.  Comp.  the  Oratio  of  the  patriarch 
Germanus,  in  exaltat.  vcncr.  crucis,  contra  Bogomil.    (Gretser,  De  criice,  ii.  157  sqc>  ) 


174  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  Bogumilism  cherished  somewhat  later  by  the  Constantino- 
poHtan  monk  Niphon,  under  the  Emperor  Manuel  Commenus, 
in  combating  the  forms  of  the  Church's  homage  displayed 
towards  the  cross,  not  this  homage  in  itself.  He  approved 
only  of  that  staurolatry  which  had  reference  to  representations 
of  the  cross  with  the  superscription,  "Jesus  Christ  the  Son  of 
God,"  and  on  the  other  hand  pronounced  the  reverence  mani- 
fested towards  crosses  without  this  inscription  a  superstition, 
and  ascribed  the  miracles  wrought  by  the  mere  symbol  of  the 
cross  to  the  operation  of  the  devil.^ — The  influence  of  the 
Boguniili  and  their  predecessors  the  Manichaeans,  Paulicians, 
and  Euchites,  made  itself  felt  with  considerable  effect  upon 
several  western  sects  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
particularly  upon  the  adherents  of  Peter  OF  Bruis  and  upon 
the  Albigenses.  Of  these  the  Petrobrusians  showed  them- 
selves the  most  extreme  opponents  of  the  reverence  of  the 
cross.  According  to  their  opponent,  Peter  the  Venerable, 
they  would  not  admit  of  adoration  or  even  reverence  in  regard 
to  the  cross,  but  animated  each  other  to  break  it  in  pieces  and 
trample  it  under  foot,  and  are  even  said  to  have  held  public 
auto-da-fcs  of  collected  crucifixes,  and  to  have  eaten  the  meat 
roasted  over  the  flames  in  their  religious  assembhes  on  Good 
Friday,  in  contempt  of  the  ecclesiastical  regulations  which 
enjoined  fasting.^  As  Henry  of  Lausanne,  the  leader  of  his 
party  after  the  death  of  Peter  of  Bruis,  at  once  abolished 
these  repelling  extravagances,  nay,  even — as  a  token  that  we 
have  to  follow  Christ  the  Crucified — had  a  cross  banner  carried 
before  him  in  his  journeyings  from  place  to  place  ;  so  also  the 
Cathari  or  ALBIGENSES,  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
by  no  means  opposed  all  use  of  crosses  or  crucifixes  in  worship, 
but  only  that  of  the  Romish  church-tradition.  Their  crosses, 
as  is  objected  against  them  in  a  lengthy  polemical  treatise  by 

'  Leo  AUatius,  De  Ecclesice  Occident,  et  orientalis  perpchia  consensmte.  Colon. 
1648,  ii.,  c.  xii.,  p.  671  sqq. 

^  Petri  Venerab.  Ep.  contra  Petrobrusianos  (in  Bibl.  max.  I.ugd.,  t.  xxii.) 
Especially  the  section,  "  Against  their  assertion  that  the  cross  of  the  Lord  is  neither 
to  be  adored  nor  revered,  but  rather  broken  into  pieces  and  trodden  under  foot." 
(f.  1051— 1057.) 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  1 75 

Bishop  Luke  of  Tuy  (about  1230),  were  not  four-armed,  but 
three-armed  (T-shaped) ;  and  if  they  depicted  the  Saviour 
upon  them,  they  represented  Him  as  nailed  with  three  nails, 
not  with  four,  thus  with  the  feet  placed  the  one  over  the  other ; 
in  addition  to  which  the  practice  was  charged  against  them 
of  making  their  representations  of  Christ,  as  of  the  saints,  the 
Virgin,  etc.,  not  beautiful,  as  one  might  expect,  but  as  ugly 
as  possible.  The  counter-argument  of  Luke  betrays  many 
weak  points.  He  takes  his  stand  mainly  upon  tradition  : 
first  upon  that  of  the  Romish  Church,  which  one  must  follow 
before  all ;  then  also  upon  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Armenians. 
That  the  nails  of  the  Crucified  were  four  in  number  is  evident 
from  the  existence  of  the  four  genuine  nails,  which  are  still 
(in  his  day)  preserved,  namely,  in  Constantinople,  in  Tarsus, 
in  Nazareth,  and  at  St.  Denis  near  Paris,  and  have  been  seen 
and  reverenced  in  these  places  by  himself,  the  bishop,  so 
greatly  experienced  in  travelling.  In  like  manner,  the  fact 
that  there  were  four  arms  to  the  cross  of  Christ  is  shown  on 
the  authority  of  the  Romish  Church,  which  employs  in  its 
service  only  four-armed  crosses,  or  else  double  crosses,  with  a 
smaller  transverse  ledge  over  the  main  transverse  arm,  to 
indicate  the  title  of  Pilate  ;  and  whose  most  powerful  Pope, 
Innocent  III.,  in  his  sermons,  has  expressly  declared  himself 
opposed  to  the  form  with  three  arms.  The  fact,  too,  that  a 
cross  preserved  in  a  monastery  at  Nicosia  in  Cyprus,  alleged 
to  be  the  genuine  cross  of  one  of  the  two  thieves,  has  four 
arms,  affords  an  indirect  argument  against  the  supposition  of 
the  Albigenses  that  the  cross  of  the  Saviour  was  shaped  like 
a  T.^ — Farther  than  the  Albigenses,  namely,  to  the  entire 
rejection  of  crosses  and  the  practice  of  crossing  oneself,  did 
the  Waldenses  proceed,  and  that  not  alone  in  their  later 
stage  of  development,  in  which  they  assumed  an  attitude  of 
decided  hostility  towards  the  Romish  Church.  Against  them 
the  Church  practice  was  defended  by  Everard  of  Bethune  in 
Artois  (about  1200),  in  his  clumsily  written  and  fiercely  pole- 

'  Luc.   Tudens.    adv.    Albigenses,    ii.,  iii.,  in  the  Bibl.  max.   Ludg.,  t.  xxv., 
p.  195  sqq. 


176  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST.- 

mical  work  AntiJiceresis} — Of  the  English  LOLLARDS,  finally^ 
the  adherents  of  the  doctrines  of  WicHff  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  it  is  related  that  they  entirely  and  radically  rejected 
the  ecclesiastical  veneration  for  the  cross,  therein  proceeding 
farther  than  Wiclifif,  who  approved  of  a  moderate  use  of 
pictures  and  crosses  in  worship,  so  long  as  this  was  preserved 
free  from  idolatry,^  Picus  of  Mirandola,  also,  in  one  of  his 
celebrated  nine  hundred  theses  (of  the  year  1484),  denied  the 
claim  of  the  cross  to  veneration;  but  later  retracted  this  denial 
as  an  error,  and  even  cherished  during  the  last  years  of  his 
life  an  ardent  desire  himself  to  travel  the  world  over,  the 
cross  in  his  hand,  in  the  character  of  a  missionary. 

The  most  vigorous  discussions  in  favour  of,  and  in  opposi- 
tion to,  the  Catholic  tradition  regarding  the  cultic  use  of  the 
cross,  had  already  taken  place  at  the  time  of  the  Image 
Controversy.  The  Iconoclasts  of  the  East,  after  Leo  the 
Isaurian — to  whose  position  in  relation  to  this  question  later 
opponents  of  the  orthodox  custom,  as  the  Bogumili,  ex- 
pressly appealed — utterly  rejected  as  idolatry  all  reverence 
of  images  ;  but  approved  of  the  erection  and  religious  use  of 
crosses  (without  the  image  of  Christ  thereupon).  Thus  Leo 
the  Isaurian  caused  to  be  set  up,  in  the  year  730,  in  place  of 
the  celebrated  image  of  "Christ  the  Surety"  above  the  brazen 
gate  of  the  imperial  palace  at  Constantinople — destroyed  at 
his  command — a  cross  with  a  subscription,  composed  in  Iambic 
trimeters  by  the  iconoclast  Stephanus,  to  the  effect  that  the 
emperor  had  erected,,  in  place  of  the  dumb  and  lifeless  figure 
of  earthly  material  sullied  with  colours,  represented  as  Christ, 
the  glorious  symbol  of  the  cross,  the  boast  of  the  gates  of 
"  beheving  princes."^     The  Council  of  the  Iconoclasts,  more- 

1  Also  under  the  title,  Contra  Waldenses ;  see  Bihl.  viax.,  t.  xxiv.,  f.  1560, 
spec.  cap.  17  :  "  Quod  crux  dominica  veneranda  sit." 

2  Lechler,  Johann  Widif,  i.  555  ff. ;  ii.  317,  319. 

^  "A(pu3vov  eZSos  /cat  ttj'o^s  i^ripfxevov 
XptcTToc  ypd(pea6ai  p-rj  (pepiov  6  deaTrorr^s 
"TXri  yeripa,  rals  ypa.<pah  Tva.TOvp.ivri, 
Kiwv  avv  viy  ry  vi<i>  KcovcrravTivip 
"Zravpov  xopdrTet  tov  rpiaoXlSLOP  tvttov 
'KavxVh'-'^  TTiffTcDi'  ev  ir'uKai.s  avaKTOp^ov. 
Conip.  Thcod.  Stitditic  opp.,  Ed.  Sirmond.,  f.  136. 


IN    THE   CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 77 

over,  under  Constantine  Copronymus  (754),  directed  its 
anathemas  indeed  against  every  form  of  image-worship,  but 
not  against  the  ecclesiastical  use  of  crosses,  any  more  than 
against  that  of  relics  or  against  the  invocation  of  Mary  and 
the  saints.  The  decrees  of  the  second  Nicaean  Council  (ySy), 
restoring  the  worship  of  images,  therefore — ^just  as  the  theo- 
logical argumentations  of  a  John  of  Damascus,  in  the  Fourth 
Book  of  his  great  dogmatic  work,  which  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  these  decrees — proceed  upon  the  recognition  of  the  fact 
of  the  reverence  devoted  to  "  the  venerable  and  life-giving 
cross "  as  something  established  and  unassailable,  and  de- 
mand for  the  images  of  Christ  and  of  the  saints  exactly 
the  same  sanctity  and  reverence  as  for  this.^  And  the 
orthodox  apologetes  for  iconodulia,  with  special  emphasis 
Theodorus  Studites,  again  and  again  object  against  their 
heretical  opponents,  as  an  act  of  gross  inconsistency,  that 
while  they  admit  the  cross  as  an  object  of  reverence,  they  do 
not  in  the  same  way  admit  the  images  of  the  Saviour,"-* — In 
many  respects  different  is  the  position  parties  assume  in  rela- 
tion to  the  question  of  the  reverence  for  the  cross  in  the  image 
controversies  of  the  West.  Here  there  pretty  early  arises  a 
strong  middle  party,  represented  by  the  Prankish  theologians 
of  Charlemagne  and  his  successors,  who  approve  neither  of 
the  iconoclasm  of  the  East  nor  the  iconodulic  tendency  of 
the  popes,  but  demand  in  regard  to  images,  as  well  as  to 
crosses,  etc.,  a  sober  evangelically  moderate  use  in  worship. 
But  here  also  we  meet  with  an  extreme  iconoclastic  tendency, 
of  which  the  spokesman,  Bishop  Claude  of  Turin  (f  839), 
opposed  as  idolatrous,  not  only  the  reverence  of  images,  but 
also  its  hagiological  background,  the  invocation  of  saints ; 
and  extended  his  polemics  not  merely  to  relic-worship 
and  the  making  of  pilgrimages,  but  also  to  the  ecclesiastical 

'   'Opl^o/J.€t> TrapaTrXijaius    tw    rinrip    tou    ti/jllov    /cat    fwoTrotoD   ffravpod 

dvaridicrOai,    ras    creirTas    /cat    d7t'as    eiKOPas /cat    rauTais    acr-rraiT^bv   /cat 

TLiJ.y]TLKrjv  irpo(jKVP7]cnp  dTrovefxeiv.      (See  the  Acts  of  the  Council,   in  Mansi  xiii. 

«77.) 

2  Theodori  Stud.  Antirrhetic.  adv.   Iconomach.  lib.  tres.      Also  his  Orat.  in 
adorat.  crucis  med.  quadrages.     (i>/.V.  ///<rx.,  t.  xiv.,  p.  900  sq.) 

12 


178  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

use  of  the  cross.  This  genuine  precursor  of  the  puritanism 
of  the  Reformation,  caused  the  wooden  or  stone  crosses  to  be 
removed  from  all  the  churches  of  his  diocese.  In  justifica- 
tion of  this  proceeding  he  objected  against  the  defenders  of 
the  reverencing  of  the  cross  that — since  they  would  have  us 
reverence  the  cross,  because  Christ  had  hung  thereon — in 
order  to  be  consistent  they  must  also  reverence  many  other 
things,  with  which  Christ  had  come  in  contact :  thus  mangers, 
because  as  a  child  He  had  laid  in  one ;  stones,  because  His 
grave  was  formed  of  one ;  virgins,  because  a  virgin  had  borne 
Him; — yea,  asses,  for  riding  upon  an  ass  had  the  Lord  made 
His  entry  into  Jerusalem  !  Moreover  the  Lord  had  bidden 
us  carry  His  cross,  not  worship  it;  and  for  this  very  reason 
did  the  opponents  demand  its  worship,  because  they  were 
averse  to  the  taking  up  and  bearing  of  the  same,  whether 
externally  and  bodily  or  in  spirit  and  in  truth.^  It  ought  to 
have  been  easy  for  the  champions  of  orthodoxy  to  reply  in  a 
becoming  manner  to  these  attacks,  in  which  the  element  of 
a  pretty  rough  banter  outweighs  to  some  extent  that  of  the 
evangelical  seriousness  becoming  a  question  of  such  import- 
ance ;  especially  since  so  distinguished  a  theologian  as  Arch- 
bishop Agobard  of  Lyons,  who  agreed  with  Claude  in  his 
objections  to  the  ecclesiastical  use  of  images,  expressed  him- 
self in  a  moderate,  a  conciliating  way,  and  one  essentially 
conformed  to  the  ancient  ecclesiastical  tradition."  Yet,  in 
reality,  their  arguments  leave  much  to  be  desired.  Thus 
Dungal,  of  Pavia,  opposes  to  the  supposed  contemner  of  the 
incarnation  and  enemy  of  the  cross  of  Christ  nothing  better 
than  a  one-sided  and  moderately  clumsy  demonstration  on 
traditional  grounds.  Bishop  Jonas  of  Orleans,  on  the  other 
hand,  who  is  able  to  bring  into  the  field  counter-arguments 
drawn  from  Biblical  sources  in  greater  abundance,  displays 
just  as  little  tact  in  their  handling  as  he  does  moderation  in 

•  Claudii  Apologet.  excerpt.,  in  the  Bil//.  »inx.,  I.e.,  p.  197  sqq.,  immediately 
before  Dungal.  respons.  adv.  Claud,  (p.  204  sqq.) 

^  Agobardi  I-ugd.  lib.  contra  superstitionem  eorum,  qui  picturis  et  imaginibus 
sanctorum  adorationis  obsequium  deferendum  putant  {BiM,  max.,  t,  xiv.  p.  286 
sqq.),  cap.   1 9. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 79 

his  replies  to  the  objections  of  the  opponent.  He  directs  his 
polemics  with  special  zeal  against  the  remark  of  Claude  about 
the  ass  as  being  entitled  to  equal  importance  as  an  object  of 
adoration  as  the  cross.  To  this  assertion  he  opposes  a 
reference,  in  itself  entirely  apposite,  to  Gal.  vi.  14,  as  showing 
that  the  apostle  gloried  not  in  the  ass,  but  in  the  cross.  He 
wearies  the  reader,  however,  by  the  excessively  long  time  he 
occupies  over  the  expression  assailed,  as  well  as  over  the 
reply  to  it,  and  moreover  errs  in  the  passionate  and  unseemly 
attacks  he  makes  upon  the  person  assailed,  whom  eventually 
he  even — in  quoting  certain  lines  from  Ovid  and  from  Virgil 
— compares  to  the  drunken  Silenus,  fallen  from  his  ass.^ 
Another  contemporary  writer,  the  deacon  Amalarius  of  Metz, 
in  the  chapter  of  his  work  on  "  the  churchly  office"  which  treats 
of  the  adoration  of  the  cross,  opposes  the  assaults  of  Claude 
mainly  with  the  history  of  miracles,  e.g.,  with  the  account  of 
the  victory  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  King  Oswald  in  consequence 
of  the  erection  and  adoration  of  a  cross,  as  drawn  from  Bede's 
"  Church  History."  Nor  does  he  neglect  to  point  to  the  fact 
that,  as  opposed  to  the  numerous  miracles  wrought  by  the 
cross,  nothing  is  known  of  any  that  were  performed  by  the 
ass  of  Christ.^  All  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  really  pro- 
found and  true  in  the  argumentation  of  Claude — namely,  of 
the  proposition  that  the  cross  of  Christ  is  not  so  much  ex- 
ternally to  be  reverenced  as  rather  to  be  borne — is  wanting  in 
pretty  equal  degree  to  all  these  apologetes  of  the  Catholic 
traditional  standpoint.  As  regards  the  later  centuries  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  point  out,  especially 
among  the  Mystics  (see  sec.  5  of  this  chapter),  a  consider- 
able number  of  those  theologians  for  whom,  while  they  con- 
tinue to  agree  generally  with  orthodox  tradition,  there  is  by 
no  means  wanting  the  endeavour  after  a  profounder  appre- 
ciation of  the  idea  of  the  cross. 

*  De  cultu  imaginum,  ii.  p.  186  (in  Bibl.  max.,  t.  xiv.) 

*  Amalarii  Metens.,  Dc  Ecclcs.  Officio,  i.  c,  14  :  de  adoratione  sanctcie  cnicis. 


l8o  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

c.   THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  BEAUTY  OF  THE  CROSSLIN 
ECCLESIASTICAL  ART. 

No  one  of  the  various  directions,  in  which  the  Church  of 
the  Middle  Ages  carries  into  execution  the  glorifying  of  the 
sacred  symbol,  appears  so  well  justified,  and  has  shown  itself 
h\  an  equal  degree  productive,  as  that  belonging  to  the 
sphere  of  artistic  formation  and  creation.  In  the  domain 
of  art  were  to  be  brought  out  the  most  abundant  and  most 
permanently  valuable  treasures, — to  be  brought  out  for  that 
life  of  devotion  which  is  intent  upon  the  glorification  of  the 
cross.  For  the  cross,  once  the  epitome  of  all  that  is  odious 
and  execrable,  belongs  in  itself  to  the  most  effective  motives 
of  aesthetic  conception,  to  the  purest  and  noblest  sources  of 
artistic  production  and  enjoyment.  Definitely  that  form  of 
the  terrible  implement  of  the  Carthaginians  and  Romans, 
the  four-armed  long  cross — with  regard  to  which  we  may 
suppose,  with  an  especially  high  degree  of  probability,  that 
it  was  employed  in  the  crucifixion  of  the  Redeemer — includes 
in  its  lowly  but  severe  simplicity  the  germs  from  which  have 
sprung  the  most  significant  representations,  and  those  which 
lay  most  hold  upon  our  feelings.  It  appears  as  closely  allied 
to  one  of  the  most  charming  and  captivating  polygonal 
figures,  that  of  the  many-rayed  star ;  but  it  is  a  "  star  with 
diminished  rays."  It  signifies  a  renouncing  of  all  glittering 
and  splendour, — yea,  a  restriction  of  the  element  of  radiance 
itself  within  the  barest  conceivable  limits.  The  cross  "from 
its  very  nature  presents  the  element  of  extension  in  a  manner 
which  is  specific  indeed,  but  at  the  same  time  as  much  as  pos- 
sible simple  and  measured ;  on  which  account  it  bears  great 
resemblance  in  those  cases  where  there  is  an  equal  length 
of  the  stem  with  that  of  the  two  arms  (thus  in  the  case  of  the 
*  equal-armed  cross  ') — to  the  star,  to  which  at  the  same 
time  it  presents  an  absolute  contrast  :  for  the  extension  is 
here  reduced  to  the  smallest  proportion  of  bulk  and  of  limbs, 
and  is  restricted  to  the  severest  indentity  of  forms."       The 

'  K.  Kostlin,  Aesthetik  (Tubingen,  1869),  S.  415  f. — Comp.  in  general  the  whole 
of  his  instructive  chapter,  S.  380  ff. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  l8l 

same  is  the  case  with  the  kindred  relation  of  the  cross, 
specially  the  oblong  (Latin)  cross,  to  the  figure  of  a  tree,  or 
of  the  human  form  standing  with  outstretched  arms.  While 
it  appears  as  a  star  deprived  of  its  lustre,  as  it  were  im- 
poverished, so  does  it  at  the  same  time  present  a  resemblance 
to  a  leafless  tree,  a  tree  deprived  indeed  of  all  its  crown,  save 
what  is  represented  by  two  bare  main  branches ;  or  to  a 
human  frame  shrunk  into  the  most  indigent  proportions,  the 
skeleton  of  the  upright  standing  human  form — in  either  case 
an  image  of  mighty  strength,  but  also  of  most  unrelaxing 
severity  and  of  joyless  and  lifeless  rigidity.  The  long  or  high 
cross  "presents  in  the  most  decided  manner  the  opposition  of 
the  cross-form  to  all  animated  expansive  organisations :  it 
is  like  a  tree  of  which  only  the  stem  and  two  main  branches 
remain  alive ;  and  these  branches,  moreover,  have  been 
curtailed  in  their  extension,  and  have  become  deadly  rigid 
in  a  regular  and  rectangular  form  of  extension  ;  it  appears 
in  the  world  joylessly  mourning."  And  this  hard  and  severe 
form  loses  nothing  that  is  essential  to  it,  even  though  we 
regard  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  inorganic  formations 
which  are  familiar  to  us  from  our  youth  up  ;  if  thus  we  com- 
pare it  in  the  first  place  to  those  mineral  crystal  forms 
which  bear  resemblance  now  to  one,  now  to  another  of  its 
modifications.  It  is  and  ifemains  rigid,  from  the  very  fact 
that  it  is  "  a  specific  inorganic  form,"  without  any  inner  life 
and  without  any  sign  of  life  of  its  own.  "  It  produces  the 
impression  of  the  intersection  of  one  body  by  a  second,  and, 
with  this,  of  a  violent  interruption  of  the  continuity  of  its 
parts.  In  the  equal-arm.ed  (Greek)  cross  the  impression 
produced  is  certainly  at  the  same  time  that  of  four  bodies 
proceeding  from  a  common  centre  in  different  directions  :  the 
thought  of  having  before  one  a  pierced  body  does  not  thus 
here  present  ittelf  so  exclusively  or  so  powerfully  as  it  might 
otherwise  do ;  and  the  more  so  because  the  regularity  of 
this  cross-form,  so  easily  taken  in  at  a  glance,  imparts  to  it 
something  of  a  mildness  of  character.  But  in  truth  even 
this  form  is  not  entirely  free  from  a  certain  appearance  of 


1 82  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

harsh  interpenetration."  ^ — In  spite  of  this  its  sharp  and  hard 
character,  which  suggests  to  the  thought  a  deadly  weapon, 
the  soul-piercing  sword  of  Symeon  (Luke  ii.  35),  what  fulness 
of  the  most  subhme,  yea  the  most  lovely  elements  of  beauty, 
is  to  be  evolved  from  this  typical  form,  so  soon  as  one  is 
intent  upon  restoring  to  the  star  its  rays,  to  the  tree  its 
fohage,  upon  animating  the  rigid  skeleton  by  clothing  it 
with  flesh  and  blood !  The  symbol  of  the  most  melancholy 
desolation  and  desertion  has  become,  through  the  sacred 
body  of  the  God-man  who  hung  upon  it,  a  scene  of  peaceful- 
ness,  of  salvation,  and  of  life,  acting  with  irresistible  power 
of  attraction  upon  thousands  and  thousands.  In  place  of 
sorrow  and  gloom,  there  beams  forth  joy  and  transport  from 
the  painfully  hard  and  angular  scaffold  of  wood  which  was 
erected  by  the  prince  of  this  world  to  be  a  gallows  ;  since 
the  Prince  of  Life,  by  His  bleeding  and  dying  thereon,  has 
consecrated  it  to  be  the  gladdening  sacrificial  altar  of  the 
New  Covenant ! 

As  a  symbol  which  in  the  first  instance  denotes  energy, 
strength,  triumph,  victorious  breaking  through  from  death 
to  life,  has  the  cross  above  all  become  an  effective  motive 
in  ECCLESIASTICAL  ARCHITECTURE.  Its  application  to  this 
object  appears  to  be  hardly  less  ancient  than  the  custom 
itself  of  erecting  independent  places  for  the  religious  meetings 
of  the  Christians.  We  know  at  any  rate  the  inner  and  out- 
ward arrangement  of  those  churches  of  the  pre-Constantine 
period  for  which  in  general  the  second  book  of  the  Apostolic 
Constitutions  prescribes  an  oblong  form,  and  a  position  turned 
to  the  east,"  though  with  too  little  of  exactness  for  us  to  be 
able  to  determine  very  definitely  whether,  and  to  what  extent, 
the  form  of  the  cross  was  already  consciously  applied  in  their 
construction.  But  thus  much  is  unquestionably  evident,  that 
from  the  time  of  Constantine — with  whom  begins  a  more 
vigorous  and  more  varied  architectural  activity  on  the  part 

'  Kostlin,  /.  c.    [The  word  employed  is  DnrcJisetzung.     A  stone  is  said  to  be 
"  durchsetzt "  when  it  is  penetrated  with  another  fossil,  or  with  metallic  particles.] 
2  Const  it  t.  Apostt.,  ii.  57. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 83 

of  the  Church — the  forfn  of  the  cross  becomes  the  constant 
ground-form  on  which  ecclesiastical  buildings  are  constructed. 
Whether,  then,  this  emperor  added    to  the  other  modes  of 
gratefully  glorifying  imitation  of  the  salvation  and  victory 
giving  sign,  as  these  were  devised  by  him,  also  the  designed 
adoption  of  cruciform   plans  as  the  basis  of  construction  in 
one  or  other  of  his  numerous  church  edifices  ;    or  whether, 
what  is  indeed  more  probable,  his  architects  conceived  more 
or  less  instinctively  the  thought  in  question,  and,  by  means 
of  a  modified  working  out  of  certain  ancient  Roman  typical 
forms,  carried  it  into  execution  ;  in  any  case,  many  churches, 
even  of  those  belonging  to  the  Constantinean  epoch,  clearly 
present  the  cross  as  the  typical  form  of  their  inner  construction. 
To  the  Byzantine  style  of  church  building,  with  the  quadratic 
form  which  underlies  it,  are  typically  related  those  octagonal 
or  round  churches,^  of  which,  according  to  the  express  and 
credible  testimony  of  ancient  authorities,  Constantine  erected 
several — the    Church  of  the    Holy  Sepulchre    in  Jerusalem, 
Helena's  Church  of  the  Ascension  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  the 
one  built  in  the  form  of  an  octagon  at  Antioch.     In  the  style 
of  the  oblong  basilica,  the  precursor  of  the  Romanesque  and 
Gothic  church  structures  of  later  time,  were  manyof  his  churches 
in  Rome  constructed,  as  well  as  some  in  the  East — thus  in 
Tyre,  in  Bethlehem,  in  Mamre,  and  also  one  in  Jerusalem,  not 
far  from  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.'^    The  first  of  these 
(all  of  which  we  have  to  conceive  of  as  churches  or  chapels  of 
the  sepulchre,  formed  after  the  construction  of  the  cylindrical 
monuments  of  tombs  among  the  Romans)  were  conformed  to 
the  model — distinctly  enough  perceptible  from  the  inside,  at 
any  rate — of  the  equal-armed  or  Greek  cross  ;  the  latter,  by 

'  Kreuser,  Der  Christliche  Kirchenbau  (Bonn,  185 1),  i.  13  ff.,  34,  38,  and  else- 
where, is  decidedly  inclined  to  regard  Constantine  himself  as  the  author  of  the 
plan  and  peculiarities  of  construction  of  the  churches  erected  during  his  reign.  He 
especially  traces  back,  in  accordance  with  early  Roman  tradition,  numerous 
basilicas  at  Rome  to  this  emperor,  which  can  hardly  date  from  his  time.  Comp. 
Gregorovius,  Gesch.  Roins  tin  Mittelaltcr,  i.  87  ff.,  who  recognises  with  certainty 
only  St.  John's  in  the  Lateran  as  a  creation  of  Constantine. 

"^  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  x.  4;  Vit,  Const.,  iii.  37,  41,  43.  5'  «iq- 


184  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

virtue  of  a  transept  intercepting  the  nave  at  right  angles 
immediately  before  the  apsis,  were  conformed  to  the  model 
of  the  lengthened  or  Latin  cross.  In  the  case  of  some  of 
these  ecclesiastical  edifices  of  Constantine  and  the  Constan- 
tinean  age,  the  form  of  the  cross  seems  to  have  been  rendered 
strikingly  prominent,  even  externally,  since  contemporaries 
and  later  writers  expressly  indicate  the  cruciform  character 
of  these  structures  ;  so  in  the  case  of  the  Church  of  the 
Apostles  at  Constantinople — displaying  indeed  a  mediate 
form  between  the  Byzantine  and  the  Latin  style  of  architec- 
ture-— which  was  later  rebuilt  under  Justinian.^  But  even 
where  the  form  of  the  cross  did  not  stand  in  external  and  bold 
relief,  it  continued  nevertheless  to  present  the  fundamental 
type  to  which  the  internal  disposal  and  arrangement  v/as 
conformed  ;  for,  on  account  of  the  position  of  the  altar  in  the 
apsis,  the  most  easterly  part  of  the  nave,  lying  nearest  to  this, 
at  all  times  claimed,  as  the  natural  place  of  assembly  for  the 
communicants,  to  be  regarded  as  a  privileged  spot,  and,  where 
it  was  not,  as  a  transept,  shut  off  from  the  space  in  front,  yet 
was  assuredly  always  looked  upon  as  an  especially  important 
middle  space,  as  it  were  of  an  ideal  transverse  arm  of  the 
cruciform  building.  In  short,  even  in  the  domain  of  the 
history  of  architecture,  and  here  also  with  respect  to  the  form 
of  the  basilica,  after  the  time  of  Constantine  at  least,  the 
saying  of  an  ancient  author  retains  its  universal  truth,  that 
"  the  Cross  forms  the  foundation  of  the  Church."  ^ 

The  quadratic  style  of  architecture,  which  has  remained 
almost  exclusively  prevalent  in  the  East,  from  the  time  of 
Justinian  further  developed  into  the  BYZANTINE  DOME- 
STYLE,  retained  the  equal-armed  cross  as  the  ground-plan 
for  the  interior  of  the  church,  surrounded  as  it  was  by  qua- 
dratic walls  of  enclosure  ;  later,  however,  in  its  most  charac- 
teristic church  and  chapel  edifices, — namely,  those  of  the 
Russian   Church, — has  brought  out   the   form   of  the   cross 

'  See  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Somn.  de  Anastasicc  Ecdes..  2,  16,  60.  Procopius, 
De  ^dif.,  i.  4. 

-  Xravpbs  €KK\-)]<TLas  Oe/xeXios.  pseudo-Chrysost.,  Or.  in  venerab.  Cntcctn  (in 
Chrysost.  0pp.,  ed.  JNIontfauc,  t.  ii.  p.  822). 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  1 85 

also  externally  in  the  overarching  and  roofing.  The  five 
slender  cupolas,  resplendent  with  gold,  under  the  influence  of 
Mohammedan-Tatar  ideas  for  the  most  part  of  bulbiform 
construction,  with  which  the  majority  of  Russian  churches  are 
covered,  regularly  form  a  Greek  cross — whether  it  be  a  direct, 
rectangular  cross,  or  an  oblique  cross,  after  the  type  of  the  crux 
Andreaiia — of  which  the  centre  is  represented  by  the  main 
cupola,  towering  high  above  the  point  of  intersection  of  the 
two  transverse  arms  of  the  ground-plan.  So  far  as  churches 
of  this  form  of  construction  deserve  to  be  called  beautiful, 
they  owe  this  mainly  to  the  maintaining  and  vigorous  carry- 
ing into  effect  of  the  cruciform  principle.  The  interior,  es- 
pecially when  regarded  from  the  centre,  for  this  very  reason 
always  leaves  the  impression  of  refreshing  harmony  ;  whether 
this  harmony  of  the  four  cross-aisles  of  equal  dimensions,  into 
which  one  looks,  is  contemplated  in  majestic  proportions — as, 
e.g.,  in  the  Hagia  Sofia,  at  Constantinople, — or,  owing  to  more 
modest  relations  of  space,  is  perceptible  only  in  the  form  of 
the  delicate  and  lovely.  Viewed  also  from  without  and  at  a 
distance,  these  churches  appear  always  beautiful,  so  long  as 
those  five  cupolas  rise  above  them  in  the  form  of  the  cross. 
Where — as  in  the  case  in  many  churches  of  Greece,  and  in 
general  in  the  southern  districts  of  eastern  Christendom — 
some  other  order  of  arrangement  than  the  cruciform  is  em- 
ployed, e.g.,  the  ranging  of  a  number  of  cupolas. ift'a  line 
upon  the  front  of  the  building  ;  or  whtTe,  as  in  the  case  of 
many  of  the  older  ch'urches  of  the  Russian  empire,  an  arbitrary 
accumulation  of  cupolas  or  towers,  to  the  number  of  nine  for 
instance  (as  upon  some  of  the  churches  of  Moscow),  or  to 
eleven  (as  upon  the  church  of  St.  Sophia  at  Kiev),  or  to  a 
still  greater  number  (as  again  upon  some  of  the  churches  of 
Moscow),  has  obtained,  there  the  impression  of  harmonious 
beauty  is  regularly  sacrificed  ;  the  denial  of  that  which  is  in 
principle  the  typical  and  normal  form  receives  its  own  punish- 
ment in  the  rise  of  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  tastelessness 
and  stiffness. 

Entirely  similar   is  the   development  of  the   ecclesiastical 


I  86  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

architecture  in  the  West,  where,  after  a  passing  influence  of 
the  Byzantine  cupola-style  in  the  age  of  Justinian  (churches 
of  Ravenna,  later  at  Venice,  Aachen,  etc.),  the  oblong  basilica 
form   has   asserted    for   itself  a   prescriptive   predominance. 
Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  design  of  the  Latin  cross,  which 
from  the   time   of   Constantine   was    inseparably  associated 
with  this  fundamental  form,  becomes  in  increasing  measure 
distinct  and  animated,  two  new  independent  orders  of  archi- 
tecture are  successively   formed    from    it — the  Romanesque 
and  the  Gothic — of  which  the  glorious  play  of  form  becoming 
ever  more  abundant  and  luxuriant,  seems  in  its  gradual  rise, 
especially  if  we  distinguish  an  earlier  and  a  later  Gothic  as 
relatively  independent  types,  to  reproduce  the  course  of  deve- 
lopment of  the  ancient  Greek  architecture,  with  its  succession 
of  Doric,  Ionic,  and  Corinthian  orders  of  pillars.      The  cross 
is  the  centre  and  croivn  of  all  these  genetically  related  creations. 
It   forms   the   impelling    primary    force   which   successively 
operates  as  a  creative  power  in  the  profoundly  serious  and 
severe  figures  of  the  circular  arch  style  ;  as  in  the  conceptions 
of  the  pointed   arch    style,  with    ever  bolder  flight  soaring 
heavenwards,  and  at  the  same  time  ever  putting  forth  more 
abundant  and  more  elegant  forms.     Already  in  the  time  of 
the  pre-Romance  basilicas,  under  the  Merovingian  or  Caro- 
Jingian  rulers  of  France,  in  single  ecclesiastical  or  monastic 
buildnigf:,  which  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  more  direct  pre- 
cursors of  the  Ronid,iiC5nue  and  Gothic  edifices,  the  cruciform 
principle  breaks  vigorously  through  the  obiong  encnmpassjr'^ 
walks,  which  would  enclose  it  and  force  it  back  into  the  interior. 
They  are  the  cross-basilicas,  whose  erection  upon  the  design 
of  the  salvation-bringing  symbol  of  redemption  is  expressly 
brought  into  relief,  as  being  the  aim  of  their  founders.     So  it 
is  with  that  of  Bishop  Namatius  at  Clermont  in  Auvergne  {circa 
450),  which  Gregory  of  Tours  describes  as  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  splendid  of   its  time ;    that  of  King  Childebert, 
of  the  year  555  ;  that  built  by  the  abbot  Fulrad  of  St.  Denis 
(784) ;  also  one  erected  at  Fulda  under  the  emperor  Louis 
the  Pious  (completed  819),  one  erected  by  Bishop  Udalrich 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    INHDDLE    AGES.  1 8/ 

(t  973)  upon  the  churchyard  of  St.  Mary  at  Augsburg,  etc.,' 
Upon  the  monastic  buildings,  too,  of  this  age  is  the  type 
of  the  cross  in  various  ways  outwardly  expressed.  The  five 
Vosgian  monasteries  under  the  abbot  Hildulf  of  Medianum, 
comprised  according  to  Columban's  rule  in  one,  Bodomiinster, 
Medianum,  Stivagium,  Sennones,  and  Juncturze,  called  as  a 
whole  Moyen  Moustier  {Monaster,  inediui/i),  or  St.  Hildulph, 
formed  together  one  great  Latin  cross.-^ 

More  gloriously,  indeed,  and  more  perfectly  than  in  these 
edifices  of  the  basilica  epoch,  which  certainly  still  present 
many  signs  of  clumsiness  and  sudden  transition — edifices  for 
whose  more  exact  description,  too,  the  necessary  points  of 
connection  a»re,  owing  to  the  destruction  of  the  monuments  in 
question,  or  the  erection  of  later  structures  over  them,  for  the 
most  part  wanting — does  the  architectural  simplicity  and 
fecundity  of  the  idea  of  the  cross  become  apparent,  from  the 
moment  when  (at  the  close  of  the  ninth  century)  the  basilica 
form  appears  as  raised  to  the  ROMANESQUE,  and  therewith 
— :by  virtue  of  a  perfect  mastery  over  those  ancient  heathen 
elements  still  to  some  extent  prevailing  in  the  former — as 
entirely  and  thoroughly  Christianised.  That  which  hence- 
forth supports  and  penetrates  the  whole  fabric  of  the  house 
of  God  as  a  fundamental  principle  of  its  construction,  is  the 
thought,  not  of  parallel  lines,  but  of  diverging  lines  which 
intersect  each  other  crosswise  ;  in  which  the  opposition  be- 
tween sensuous  and  spiritual,  between  earthly  and  heavenly, 
but  also  the  removal  of  this  opposition  by  means  of  the  re- 
deeming work  of  Christ,  is  seen  to  be  reflected.^  "The  inter- 
venient  character  of  the  Middle  Ages  appears  nowhere  more 
beautifully  than  here,  where  ancient  tradition  is  penetrated 
and  informed  by  the  new  Germanic  spirit,  where  the  length- 
wise arrangement  of  the  interior  with  a  view  to  the  altar  in 
the  basilica,  and  the  central  arrangement  in  the  Byzantine 

'  Greg,  of  Tours,  Hist.  Franc,  ii.  16.     jNIabillon,  Aiinal.  O.  S.  B.,  i.  pp.  121, 
459 ;  ii-  PP-  251,  423  ;-iv.  pp.  139,  247.     Gretser,  /.  c,  ii.  c.  12. 
''  AA.  SS.  Boll.,  t.  iii.  Jul,  p.  218,  No.  59. 
*  Comp.  Schnaase,  in  Carriere,  Die  Kiaist,  etc.,  iii.  2,  S.  166. 


1 88  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

dome-structure,  are  blended  in  one  organic  whole,  and  the 
opposition  of  strength  and  weight  is  reconciled  in  the  vault- 
ing, which  still  continues  the  upward  direction  of  the  pillars 
in  the  roof  itself  which  combines  them  and  is  borne  by 
them."^  In  two  directions  does  the  oblong  Latin  cross 
appear  in  its  action  as  the  all-conditionating  master-design 
of  the  Romanesque,  and  later  also  of  the  Gothic  or  Germanic, 
style  of  architecture.  Once  in  a  horizontal  direction,  as 
the  figure  of  the  ground-plan,  formed  in  the  well-known 
manner  from  the  five  squares  of  the  Greek  cross  by  the 
addition  of  a  sixth  (Fig.  107).  But  then  also 
in  a  perpendicular,  upward-tending  direction, 
namely,  as  the  overarching  network  of  the 
cross-vanlt, — this  construction,  so  marvellously 


Fig.  107.  ingenious   and   yet   so    simple,    by  means   of 

mutually  intersecting  semicircular  vaults,  —  which  reposes 
upon  the  supporting  pillars,  as  the  proud  crowns  of  the 
forest  trees  upon  their  stems.  But  not  merely  do  these  great 
structures,  regulative  of  the  foundation  and  the  finishing  of 
the  whole,  display  the  form  of  the  cross.  The  principle 
of  the  mutually  intersecting  lines  of  the  planes  dominates 
in  a  truly  organic  manner  the  very  details  of  the  build- 
ing. Every  single  panel  of  the  cross-vault,  consisting  of  four 
spherical  triangles  united  together  at  the  extreme  points,  is 
an  imitation  of  the  figure  of  the  cross.  Every  pillar  appears 
in  its  ground-plan  or  transverse  section  "  starlike  as  a  cross, 
with  rounded-off  wings  and  ornamental  gradations  between 
them."  Cruciform,  moreover,  are  the  gracefully  arranged 
centre  pillars  of  the  circular  windows,  as  in  another  manner 
the  ornaments  too  of  the  rosette  above  the  main  entrance. 
The  form  of  the  cross  is  displayed  finally  also  by  the  towers 
completing  the  edifice  above  and  outwardly,  as  well  in  the 
single  ones  in  the  manner  of  their  roofing  with  so-called 
cruciform  roofs,  as  by  their  number  and  order  of  arrange- 
ment ;  which  (especially  where,  as  upon  the  cathedrals  of 
Spires,  Worms,  Mainz,  Bamberg,  four  or  five  of  them  appear 

'  Carricre,  as  before,  S.  180.     Comp,  his  Aesthetik,  ii.  S.  69  fT. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 89 

grouped  together ;  or  where,  as  upon  the  churches  of  Laach, 
Hildesheim,  Limburg,  six  or  seven  of  them  appear  thus  ar- 
ranged) in  a  similar  manner  represent  the  figure  of  the  Latin 
cross,  as  do  the  cupolas  upon  the  Russian  churches  that  of 
the  Greek. 

With  more  animation,  and  at  the  same  time  with  more 
elegance,  than  the  Romanesque  cathedrals — many  of  which, 
in  their  reproduction  of  the  form  of  the  cross,  displayed  im- 
moderately colossal  proportions,  such  as,  e.o^.,  the  great  church 
of  the  monastery  at  Clugny,  with  its  two  cruciform  choirs,  the 
one  towards  the  east  and  the  other  towards  the  west  ;  or  the 
cathedrals  of  Languedoc,  v/ith  their  high  side-aisles  surround- 
ing the  whole  building,  even  to  the  cross-arms  of  the  choir — do 
the  Gothic  churches  represent  the  cruciform  principle  in  the 
abundant  fulness  of  its  characteristic  power  of  production  ;  in 
the  delicate  spires  or  pointed  turrets  regularly  ornamented 
above  with  cross-flowers,  which  crown  the  pillared  buttresses 
as  well  as  the  projecting  roofs  or  dormers  ( JViinbcrge)  of  the 
roofing ;  in  the  network  of  girdles  and  ribs,  by  which  the 
panels  of  the  cross  vaulting  appear  as  at  the  same  time 
adorned  and  supported  ;  in  the  ornamentation  of  the  high 
pointed  windows,  displaying  ever  more  glorious  star-like, 
radiated,  or  rose-shaped  figures,  and  yet  never  untrue  to  the 
fundamental  idea  of  the  cross  ;  in  the  transverse  section  of 
the  pillars,  likewise  ever  attaining  to  more  and  more  com- 
plicated rosette  forms,  and  yet  also  on  their  part  firmly 
retaining  the  characteristic  figure  of  the  cross,  etc.  Indeed  it 
would  appear  that,  like  as  the  peculiar  characteristic  which  dis- 
tinguishes an  animal  or  vegetable  organism  is  even  preformed 
in  the  minutest  of  the  countless  cellular  structures  out  of  which 
it  is  composed,  so  here  the  design  of  the  cross,  after  which 
the  whole  was  constructed,  has  been  imprinted  even  upon  the 
single  component  elements.  The  whole  building  presents  itself, 
in  its  harmonious  oneness,  as  a  marvellously  transparent  em- 
bodiment of  a  profoundly  Christian  idea.  In  order  to  become 
conscious  of  this  its  consecration  with  the  seal  of  the  Spirit, 
its  being  born  of  believing  and  loving  self-surrender  to  the 


190  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Crucified,  there  is  need  neither  for  raising  the  glance  to  the 
crosses  which  crown  the  spires,  nor  of  excavating  from  below 
the  foundation-stone  marked  according  to  ancient  traditional 
prescription  with  the  sign  of  the  cross !  ^  Neither  is  there 
need  to  have  recourse  to  forced  and  monstrous  hypotheses,  as 
that  which  would  see  in  the  whole  of  the  Gothic  cathedral 
an  external  representation  of  the  crucified  Saviour,  and  in  the 
two  towers  of  the  west  front  a  likeness  of  the  nails  in  His 
feet!  A  simple  glance  at  the  ground-plan  of  the  glorious 
creations,  as  well  as  at  the  execution — so  strictly  conformed  to 
law,  and  yet  so  free  and  full  of  animation — of  their  idea,  even 
to  the  most  delicate  elaboration  of  detail  in  the  ponderous 
masses  of  stone,  suffices  to  bring  to  light  the  deeply  Christian 
character  of  their  meaning,  and  to  lead  us  to  recognise  in 
them  true  culminating  points  of  human  art  production,  points 
of  culmination  not  to  be  attained  otherwise  than  upon  the 
wings  of  enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  crucified  and  risen  Son 
of  God. 

But  also  to  the  architecture  of  the  RENAISSANCE,  which,  as 
early  as  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  especially  in  Italy, 
arose  partly  in  combination  with  the  Gothic,  partly  in  rivalry 
therewith,  the  idea  of  the  cross  does  not  remain  alien,  although 
this  has  strictly  speaking  no  connection  with  its  fundamental 
idea.  For  this  modified  revival  of  the  architectural  forms  of 
the  Classic  ages,  which  "  opposes  to  the  rhythm  of  movement 
in  the  Gothic  a  harmony  of  geometrical  and  cubic  proportions, 
a  rhythm  of  masses,"  bears  to  the  core  a  worldly  character : 
it  originates  in  civil  architecture,  and  is  only  conventionally 
adapted  to  ecclesiastical  forms  and  requirements.  Neverthe- 
less, even  in  many  of  the  ecclesiastical  edifices  belonging  to  this 
order  the  Latin  cross  prevails,  in  combination  with  a  cupola 
over  the  centre  of  the  transverse  arms,  and  a  light  broad 
nave  throughout  the  length  of  the  building;  some,  as  the 
cathedral  of  Certosa  near  Pavia,  with  its  splendid  fagade  and 
lofty  elegant  cupola  tower,  and  the  cathedral  of  St.  Paul  in 

'  Durandus,  Rationale  dh'.  oJ'.,i.  i  :  ,  .  .  .  prlmarium  lapidem,  cui  impressn 
sit  crux,  in  fundaniento  ponere. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MHJDLE    AGES.  I9I 

London,  are  veritable  masterpieces  of  that  nobler  architecture 
of  the  Renaissance  for  which  the  cross  serves  as  a  model. 
Some  few  of  these,  notably  the  gigantic  pile  of  St.  Peter's, 
which  has  been  regarded  with  so  much  wonder  and  has 
exerted  so  great  an  influence,  have  received  as  their  basis 
the  form  of  the  Greek  cross,  and  not  without  beneficial  effect. 
And  amongst  the  decorations  of  their  walls,  for  the  greater 
part  derived  from  antique  models — often  tasteful,  but  often 
on  the  other  hand  thoroughly  tasteless — as  well  as  upon 
the  exceedingly  large  tympans,  formed  upon  the  models  of 
antiquity,  the  cross  occupies  a  not  unimportant  place.  Yet 
the  cross  always  appears  here  as  an  accessory,  not  necessarily 
belonging  to  the  total  construction,  but  rather  externally  fitted 
to  it ;  which  may  indeed  be  entirely  omitted,  but  which,  in 
proportion  as  it  is  set  aside  or  struck  out  of  the  list  of  influ- 
ences here  at  work,  leaves  the  whole  structure  deprived  of 
its  churchly  and  spiritual  character,  and  on  that  very  account 
deprived  of  its  salt  and  its  savour.  There  is  thus  repeated 
here  also  in  the  art  of  the  West  the  same  history  of  the  degene- 
ration into  the  gracelessly  stiff  and  odious — arising  from  the 
abandonment  of  the  cruciform  style  of  architecture — which 
we  met  with  in  an  analogous  manner,  if  with  variously  modi- 
fied effects,  in  the  ecclesiastic  structures  of  the  East.  The 
worst  fruits  of  this  process  of  degeneration,  but  just  germi- 
nating and  displaying  its  feeble  beginnings  at  the  close  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  have  been  reaped  only  in  the  experience  of 
modern  times. 

As  the  architecture,  so  has  further  the  Christian  Plastic 
Art  opened  a  wide  field  of  animating  conceptions  {motifs) 
to  the  artistic  endeavour  directed  towards  the  glorification  of 
our  emblem.  The  history  of  ornamented  crosses  and  of  cruci- 
fixes forms  one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  of  the  history 
of  art  in  general  during  the  Middle  Ages.  It  may,  however, 
as  one  of  the  best  explored  domains  in  this  sphere,  be  treated 
by  us  with  comparative  brevity;  so  that  only  the  most  im- 
portant and  at  the  same  time  most  characteristic  products  of 
this  type  of  Christian  art  are  here  brought  into  relief. 


192  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

It  has  already  been  observed  by  us,  in  speaking  of  the  in- 
cipient stage  of  Christian  art  in  the  pre-Constantine  age,  that 
crucifix  figures  properly  so  called,  plastic  or  painted  representa- 
tions of  the  cross  with  the  Redeemer  hanging  thereon,  dying  or 
dead,  remained  still  unknown  to  the  two  centuries  immediately 
succeeding  Constantine.  A  sacred  reserve  prevents  the  Chris- 
tians as  yet  from  making  the  highest  object  of  their  devout 
hoping  and  longing,  the  Prince  of  Life  wrestling  in  the  death- 
conflict,  the  immediate  object  of  artistic  reproduction.  Only 
timidly  and  with  hesitation  does  art  rise,  over  many  pre- 
paratory stages,  to  the  daring  height  of  this  venture.  The 
lowermost  of  these  preparatory  stages  consists  in  the  produc- 
tion of  symbolically  and  beautifully  ORNAMENTED  CROSSES^ 
especially  of  those  to  be  borne  at  the  head  of  processions 
{cnices  stationalcs),  thus  churchly  imitations  of  that  which 
Constantine  in  his  Labarum  had  created  for  the  military 
domain ;  in  like  manner  also  sumptuous  crosses  serving  for  the 
adornment  of  altars  or  fonts.  As  the  earliest  instance  of  this 
kind  must  that  cross,  wrought  in  gold  and  richly  adorned  with 
variegated  precious  stones,  be  regarded,  which  Constantine 
caused  to  be  erected,  as  the  most  significant  "  bulwark  of  his 
empire  "  upon  the  roof  of  a  porch  of  his  palace  in  New  Rome.^ 
The  silver  processional  crosses  of  Chrysostom  before  men- 
tioned {circa  400)  attach  themselves  immediately  to  these. 
Further,  the  renowned  station-cross,  from  the  baptismal  chapel 
in  the  cemetery  of  Pontianus  on  the  Via  Portuensis  in  Rome, 
of  simply  symmetrical  oblong  form,  ornamented  upon  the 
stem  and  arms  with  inlaid  jewels  in  considerable  number, 
some  of  them  of  a  square,  some  of  a  round  form ;  the  stem  set 
with  gracefully  executed  roses,  of  which  eight  bloom  on  the 
right-hand  side  and  eight  on  the  left ;  the  transverse  beam 
furnished  with  two  burning  lamps,  under  which  are  suspended 
by  golden  chainlets  the  Greek  letters  A  and  w  (Rev.  i.  8).'- 

'  (pvXaKTqpLov  ai'TJiS  /3acriXeias  (Eiiseb.,   ^  ConsL,  iii.  49). 

-  Represented  first  in  Bosio's  JRo/na  soft.,  p.  131  ;  and  afterwards  frequently^ 
c.^.,  in  Martigny,  art.  Croix,  p.  187 ;  in  Lubke's  Vorschule  z.  Stud,  dcr  lun/il. 
A'liitst,  S.  125  (56  Autl.\  etc. 


IN    THE   CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  1 93 

The  whole  does  not  correspond,  it  may  be,  in  every  respect 
with  the  requirements  of  our  modern  artistic  taste  ;  but  at  any 
rate  it  produces  the  impression  of  that  which  is  deeply  solemn, 
of  dignity  and  loveliness.  Dating  from  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century,  it  represents  one  of  the  earliest  plastic  symbolisations 
of  the  cross  in  its  character  as  the  Tree  of  Life.  It  ranges 
itself  with  those  representations,  adorned  mainly  with  emblems 
derived  from  the  vegetable  kingdom,  wreathed  with  branches 
of  palm,  olive,  or  laurel,  as  well  as  with  flowers,  of  which 
several  are  still  in  existence — just  as  Paulinus  of  Nola  (t  431) 
had  them  brought  into  his  churches,  and  describes  them  in 
his  song  : 

"  Lo,  flowers  and  wreaths  surround  the  exaUed  cross, 
And  with  the  blood  of  the  Lord  is  it  reddened,  tlie  cross. 
Hovering  doves  above  it  bear  witness  that  the  harmless  and  gentle 
Shall  surely  discover  the  way  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'" 

Numerous  other  modes  of  ornamentation  early  arise  side  by 
side  with  this  drawn  from  the  vegetable  kingdom.  Thus  the 
wreathing  with  stars,  as  in  the  case  of  several  crosses  in 
the  churches  of  Ravenna  ;  the  crowning  of  the  upper  arm 
of  the  cross  with  a  diadem  of  jewels,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  golden  cross-lamp  (said  to  be  T-shaped)  in  Paulinus' 
church  of  St.  Felix  ;  the  employment  of  the  monogram  \P^ 
with  or  without  A  and  &>,  or  even  these  letters  alone,  /iN. 
as  is  likewise  the  case  upon  Paulinus'  cross-lamp  ;  also  pig.  los. 
the  adornment  with  a  bas-relief  medallion,  representing 
scenes  from  the  Old  Testament  history,  the  image  of  the 
Good  Shepherd,  etc. ;  the  embellishment  with  small  portraits 
finely  elaborated  in  crystal,  as  upon  the  superb  cross  of  the 
empress  Galla  Placidia,  set  with  more  than  two  hundred 
precious  stones,  which  displays  in  a  wonderfully  executed 
circular  figure  of  this  kind  her  own  portrait,  together  with 
that  of  her  sons  Valentinian  III.  and  Honorius ;  finally,  tlie 
combination  of  a  greater  number  of  medals,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  remarkable  richly  ornamented  episcopal  cross  of  Ravenna, 
alleged  to  be  the  work  of  the  bishop   Agnellus,  consisting 

'  From  Augusti,  Beilriige,  i.  167  f. 

13 


194  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  twenty  coins  combined  in  a  cruciform  arrangement,  with 
busts  of  his  predecessors  in  the  episcopate.^  The  so-called 
encolpia  too  {I'^KoKnTioi),  simple  gold  crosses  or  neck  crosses 
for  wearing  as  amulets  upon  the  neck,  with  only  intrinsic- 
ally valuable  ornamentation  {i.e.,  with  pieces  of  some  kind  of 
relics)  belong  to  this  class.  So  also  the  hollow  gold  crosslet 
with  a  ring  upon  it,  discovered  so  early  as  the  seventeenth 
century  in  the  cemetery  of  the  Vatican  ;  in  like  manner  the 
hollow  cross,  with  inlaid  fragments  (splinters)  of  the  true 
holy  cross,  and  a  few  hairs  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  with 
which  Gregory  the  Great  once  presented  Reccared,  king  of 
the  West  Goths,  etc."  A  second  preparatory  stage  towards 
the  crucifix  is  formed  by  THE  CROSS  COMBINED  WITH  THE 
SYMBOL  OF  THE  LAMB,  a  combination  very  frequently  pre- 
sented in  sculptures  as  upon  paintings  of  the  fifth,  sixth, 
and  seventh  centuries,  which  in  itself  also  was  executed  in 
various  manners.  Either  the  lamb  appears  standing  under 
the  blood-red  cross,  as  in  the  descriptions  written  by  Paulinus 
of  the  churches  at  Fundi  and  Nola ;  ^  or  the  lamb,  lying 
or  standing  on  the  ground,  bears  the  lance-like  long  cross  as 
a  banner  upon  its  shoulder  ;  or  it  rests,  as  a  sacrificial  lamb, 
according  to  Rev.  v.  6,  upon  an  altar  under  the  cross  ;  or  it 
appears  upon  an  altar-like  hill  beneath  the  cross,  pouring 
forth  its  blood  from  the  neck  into  a  cup  ;  *  or  the  cross  (like 
that  Vatican  cross  described  by  Cardinal  Borgia,  a  present  of 
the  emperor  Justin  II.  (565 — 578),  bears  on  its  uppermost 
point  and  at  its  foot  busts  of  the  Redeemer,  whilst  in   its 

'  For  the  cross-lamp  of  Paulinus,  Paulin.,  A"at.,  ii.  pp.  660,  665  sqq.  The 
medallion  cross  of  Ravenna,  Ciampini,  Vet.  nion.,  ii.  tab.  14.  The  sumptuous 
cross  of  Galla  Placidia,  Odorici,  Antichita  aistiane  di  Brescia  ilhistraie  (Brescia, 
1845).  See  also  Martigny,  as  before.  Stockbauer,  S.  127  ff.  Buse,  Paulin, 
Bischofv,  Nola  und  seine  Zeit,  ii.  S.  77  f. 

*  Gregor.  M.,  Epp.,  1.  ix..  No.  22  :  ad  Recharedum  Visigoth.  Regein.  Comp. 
Bosio-Aringhi,  Rotna  siibterranea  (1671),  p.  115  ;  as  well  as  the  instructive  article 
Encolpia,  in  Martigny,  p.  232  sq. 

^  "  Sub  cruce  sanguinea  niveo  stat  Chrislus  in  agno, 
Agnus,  ut  innocua  injusto  datus  hostia  leto,  etc." 

Paulinus,  Ep.  32  ad  Sever. 
'  triumph.,^.  616,  and  Roma  sott.,  passim. 


^ 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  1 95 

middle  hangs  a  lamb ;  or  the  mosaic-like  delicately  executed 
figure  of  a  lamb  is  placed  in  the  midst  of  the  cross/ — A  third 
preparatory  stage  to  the  representation  of  the  crucifixion,  in 
point  of  time  perhaps  not  later  than  the  preceding,  but  rather 
running  side  by  side  therewith,  is  displayed   by  THE  CROSS 
IN    COMBINATION     WITH    THE    IDEAL    FIGURE   OF   CHRIST, 
likewise  in  various  modifications.     Sometimes  Christ  stands, 
in  the  form  of  a  youth  of  surpassing  beauty,  with  flowing  locks, 
upon  the  hill  of  Paradise,  from  which  burst  forth  the  four 
streams  (.?  emblem  of  the  four  Evangelists),  in  his  right  hand 
holding  a  slim  Latin  cross  of  about  his  own  height,  which  is 
adorned   with   pearls.^      Sometimes  there  appears  a  vacant 
cross,  surrounded  (i)  by  a  monogram  (Fig.  109),  sus- 
pended above  it;  (2)  by  an  empty  grave  depicted  under 
it,  with  the  two  seeking  women  and  the  Christ  who  ap-  ^ig- 109. 
pears  to  them,  thus  a  representation  of  the  resurrection  ;  (3)  by 
the  twelve  Apostles,  divided  into  two  groups,  six  standing  on 
the  right-hand  side  of  the  cross  and  six  on  the  left.  Sometimes 
further — as  upon  the  celebrated  oil-phial  from  the  catacombs 
now. in  Monza,  sent  by  Gregory  the  Great  to  Theodolinde, 
queen  of  the  Lombards,  instead  of  the  martyr  relics  she  had 
sought — a  living  verdant  foliage-cross,  symbol  of  Christ  as 
the  bliss-giving  Tree  of  Life,  forms  the  centre  of  a  larger 
group,   among    the    figures   of    which    are    specially   to   be 
observed  two  boys  adoring  the  cross,  the  crucified  thieves  at 
the  right  hand  and  the  left,  the  sorrowing  Mary,  and  Peter 
equipped  with  the  two  keys,  etc.,  and  above  all  these  a  bust 
of  Christ  enthroned  within  the  nimbus  of  the  cross  between 
the  sun  and  moon."     Sometimes,  finally,  as  upon  other  similar 
oil-phials  at  Monza  and  elsewhere,  the  representation  of  the 
Redeemer  as  crucified  in  this  or  that  particular  manner  is  left 
out,  but  yet  indicated  as  necessarily  presupposed  in  the  scene, 

'  Borgia,  Dc  cruce  Vatic,  p.  19  sqq.  Comp.  the  fi-ontispiece  to  that  work, 
representing  a  cross  with  an  inlaid  figure  of  a  lamb  {crux  verniiculata),  from 
Ravenna. 

-  See  the  beautiful  representation  of  the  sarcophagus  of  Probus  (f  395),  in 
Stockbauer,  S.  143. 

*  Plates  in  Martigny,  p.  190 ;  Stockbauer,  S.  145. 


196  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

specially  by  the  depicting  of  the  two  crosses  of  the  male- 
factors ;  or,  instead  of  the  naked  body  of  the  dying 
Saviour,  there  is  introduced,  as  in  a  representation  in  the 
church  of  St.  Apollinaris  at  Classe  in  Ravenna,  belonging  to 
the  year  675,  a  bust  of  Christ  upon  the  cross,  placed  at  the 
point  of  intersection  of  the  two  beams.^ 

The   latter   of  these   representations,  displaying  a  sacred 
shrinking  from  direct  representation  of  the  crucifixion,  date 
from  an  age  in  which  on  the  part  of  a  number  of  Christian 
artists,  at  first  among  those  belonging  to  the  Eastern  Church, 
this  shrinking  was  already  overcome,  and  the  transition  was 
accomplished  to  the  crucifix  figures  strictly  so-called.     The 
earliest   plastic   crucifix   still    in   existence,   which   came   to 
Monza  as  a  present  from  Gregory  the  Great  to  Theodolinde, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  birth  of  her  son  Adulowald,  and  has 
been  preserved  there  till  the  present  day  in  the  coronation 
church  of  St.  John,  is  notably  the  work  of  a  Greek  artist,  and 
characteristic  of  the  type  of  crucifix  figures  which  came  into 
vogue  in  the  East  from  the  time  of  Justinian."     It  represents 
Christ — arrayed  in  a  sleeveless  tunic,  or  colobium,  His  face 
youthfully   bearded,    His  head  (surrounded   by  a  nimbus  of 
rays)  slightly  inclined  to  one  side — hanging  still  living  upon 
the  cross,  with  His  feet  nailed  side  by  side  to  a  rather  large 
footboard  ;  upon  the  title  above  the  head  the  letters  I  C  X, 
and  under  the  transverse  arms  of  the  cross  inscribed  in  Greek, 
somewhat    abbreviated,  the   words    "  Behold   thy  son "  and 
"  Behold  thy  mother,"  which  the  Lord  addresses  to  the  figures 
of  Mary  and  John,  represented  (greatly  reduced  in  size)  as 
standing  at  the  ends  of  the  two  arms.     Above  the  whole, 
upon  the  border  of  the  upper  cross-arm,  are  depicted  sun  and 
moon,  the  sorrowing  witnesses  of  the  Redeemer's  death,  hence- 
forth occurring  upon  most  figures  representing  the  crucifixion.^ 

'  Didron,  Annales  archcolog.,  t.  26,  livr.  3  (1869).     Gori,  Sy^iib.  lit.,  iii.  221. 

-  Gregory  the  Great,  Epp.,  l.xiv.  11,  12.  An  engi-aving  thereof  in  Didron,  I.e. ; 
and  Stockbauer,  S.  160. 

^  On  the  sun  and  moon  (sun's  disc  and  huiar  crescent)  as  frequent  symbolic 
figures  of  the  representations  of  the  crucifixion  in  general  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
see  Yv^tx,MyihoL  zind Symbolik  dcr  Chrisll.  Kimst,  i.  2,  I37ff.,  I53ff.,  I78ff.,  699ff. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  1 97 

Most  of  these  peculiarities  are  to  be  observed  in  connection 
with  the  other  plastic  crucifix  figures,  as  also  the  painted 
ones,  of  Byzantine  origin,  dating  from  the  seventh  and  fol- 
lowing centuries.  Only  the  tunic  early  disappears,  giving 
place,  in  consequence  of  the  influence  exerted  by  a  painting 
of  Anastasius  Sinaita  {circa  600)  and  other  Syrian  repre- 
sentations, to  a  mere  cloth  around  the  loins,  which  leaves 
the  upper  part  of  the  body  entirely  naked,  and  covers  only  the 
lower  part  of  the  person  from  the  navel,  together  with  the  upper 
parts  of  the  legs  down  to  the  knees.  Not  in  quite  so  stereo- 
typed a  manner  as  in  painting  is  the  Byzantine  art  tradition 
fixed  in  the  preparation  of  plastic  figures  of  the  crucifixion  in 
metal,  stone,  ivory,  and  wood.  Yet  even  in  regard  to  these, 
the  well-known  ecclesiastical  ordinances,  which  became  pre- 
scriptive as  regards  the  former,  especially  the  82nd  canon  of 
the  Trullan  Council  of  693,  which  forbids  the  representation 
of  Christ  in  the  form  of  a  lamb,  thus  expressly  legitimating 
the  depicting  of  the  Crucified  in  human  form,^  as  well  as  the 
principles  which  prevailed  after  the  victory  of  the  orthodox 
over  the  opponents  of  images,  exerted  too  their  characteristic 
influence.  This  influence  made  itself  felt  especially  in  the 
fact  that  henceforth  painted  representations  of  the  crucifixion 

'  The  true  sense  of  the  remarkable  and  much-discussed  words  of  this  canon : 
'Ev  Tiai  Tuiv  aevTLcv  elKbvwv  ypa<pcus  dfivos  daKTvXi^  tov  irpoSpofiov  SeiKvij/jLevos 
iyXO-po-TTerai  ....  Kara  tov  dvdpdwivov  %a/3a/cr^/)a  Kal  eV  rah  eiKoffiv  dwb  tou 
vtjv  dvTl  TOV  TraXaiov  dfivov  dvaaTr]\ova6aL  opl^'op-ev,  is  certainly  open  to  dispute. 
An  absolute  prohibition  of  every  kind  of  figui-e  of  Christ  under  the  likeness  of  a 
lamb  appears  not  to  be  expressed  thereby,  rather  is  it  intended  only  to  apply  to 
those  representations  of  the  Saviour  under  the  form  of  a  lamb  which  depict  also 
John  the  Baptist  as  he  points  to  Him  with  the  finger  (John  i.  29,  36),  which  are 
designated  as  shadowy  types  unworthy  of  the  time  of  the  TrXripuifxa  vo/jlov,  or  of 
grace  and  tnith,  and  as  therefore  to  be  avoided.  Thus  much,  however,  is  clear, 
that,  in  opposition  to  such  representations,  the  depicting  of  the  crucified  Saviour 
in  the  actual  form  of  a  man  (/cara  tov  dvdpdnrii'ov  xap.)  is  recommended  and  insisted 
on  as  the  normal  ecclesiastical  type.  It  cannot  be  inferred  from  the  canon  either 
that  there  was  no  crucifix  proper  in  existence  before  692,  or  that  after  that  time 
the  representing  Christ  under  the  form  of  a  lamb  was  without  further  qualification 
anathematised  in  the  East,  and  altogether  disappeared  from  ecclesiastical  usage 
there — with  which  the  expressions  of  approval  with  regard  to  certain  figures  of 
this  kind,  on  the  part,  e.  g.,  of  John  of  Damascus,  Omt.  iii.  de  Iinagin. ,  are  in  con- 
flict.    Comp.  Augusti,  Denkw,  xii.  124  ff. 


198  ■  THE   CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

became  of  much  more  frequent  occurrence,  and  were  more 
elaborately  executed — in  their  application  to  churches,  book- 
covers,  manuscripts,  etc. — than  sculptured  crucifixes,  which 
latter,  just  because  of  their  comparatively  rare  occurrence, 
remained  less  affected  by  the  slavish  constraint  of  theory 
and  conformity  to  the  appointed  model,  which  expresses 
itself  in  the  paintings.  Remarkable  for  their  comparatively 
original  character  are  among  others  that  formerly  the  breast- 
cross  of  Louis  the  Pious,  having  come  from  Jerusalem  in  799 
as  a  present  to  Charlemagne;^  the  cross  of  victory  of  the 
emperors  Constantine  VII.  Porphyrogeneta,  and  Romanus  II., 
splendidly  adorned  with  enamelled  work  and  precious  stones, 
of  the  year  950,  now  in  the  cathedral  of  Limburg  on 
the  Lahn  ;  ^  the  crucifixion  scene  upon  a  panel  of  the 
Pantaleon  gates  of  the  church  of  St.  Paul  in  Rome,  executed 
in  brass  at  Constantinople  about  the  year  1070 ;  several 
Russian  crosses,  or  at  least  crosses  belonging  to  the  treasures 
of  Russian  churches,  wrought  in  gold  or  ivory,  and  dating  from 
the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries ;  an  iron 
cross  of  a  construction  in  many  respects  peculiar,  recently 
discovered  by  the  English  traveller  the  Rev.  H.  F.  Tozer,  in  a 
church  of  the  island  of  Crete  :  about  eighteen  inches  high, 
hollow  inside,  and  containing  within  it  a  piece  of  wood  which 
is  alleged  to  belong  to  the  true  cross,  above  the  Crucified 
bearing  not  the  ordinary  I  C  X  C,  but  the  letters  I  N  R  I, 
and  so  forth.^ — In  much  greater  number  and  variety  do  plastic 
crucifix  representations  arise  in  the  ECCLESIASTICAL  ART  OF 
THE  West  from  the  seventh  century.  Until  the  time  of 
Charlemagne  the  Byzantine  influence  very  markedly  exerts 
itself  upon  their  formation,  whether  as  relic  crosses  serving  as 
encolpia  or  phylacteries,  or  as  greater  station  crosses,  church 
crucifixes,  etc.  From  the  time  of  Charlemagne  the  western 
art-tradition  in  our  domain  begins  to  display  an  independent 

'  Kiatz,  Der  Dom  zn  Hildesheim,  S.  i6.     Stockb.,  S.  176,  186. 
-  E.   ausm.    Weerth,    Das  Siegeskreuz    der  hyzant.    Kaiser  Constaiitin    VII., 
Forphyrogeiiitus.tmd  Ro7namis  II.,  etc.,  erldutert.     Bonn,  1866. 

^  The  account  of  the  discovery  appears  in  the  Academy  of  27th  Feb.  1875. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  1 99 

bearing.     Yet  this  its  individual  character,  as  opposed  to  the 
influences    from    Byzantium,  still   continuing  to  exert  them- 
selves   with    considerable   force,    appears    not   to    have    fully 
established    itself  before   the   end  of  the   eleventh   century. 
About  the  year  1050,  on  the  occasion  of  the  ecclesiastical 
controversy  between  Leo  IX.  and  the  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, Michael    Cserularius,    the    difference    in    the    mode  of 
representation  prevailing  on  either  side — now  clearly  defined 
and  deliberately  adopted — was  at  length  formulated  in  this 
wise,  that  the  Greeks  represented  Christ  upon  the  cross  as 
dying,  the  Latins  on  the  other  hand  as  living ;    on  which  the 
former  grounded  the  reproach  that  their  opponents  represented 
the  Lord  "  not  in  a  natural  appearance,  but  contrary  to  all 
nature,"  and  these  again  the  accusation  that  the  Greeks  in  a 
certain  manner  made  a  representation,  not  of  Christ,  but  of 
an  Antichrist.^     With  full  decision  indeed  does  no  other  but 
the  Prankish  and  German  art  of  the  following  centuries  hold 
to  this  conception  of  the  Crucified,  as  only  "  put  to  death  as  to 
the  flesh,  but  made  alive  as  to,  the  spirit"  (i  Peter  iii.  18)  ; 
whilst  the  Italian  remains  under  the  continuing  influence  of 
the  Byzantine  school,  and  on  this  account  does  not  rise  to 
such  original  and  varied  creations  in  this  domain  as  those  of 
its  more  northerly  neighbours.     As  important  trophies  of  the 
latter  may  be  mentioned,  among  others,  the  celebrated  relief 
of  the  "Extern  Stones"  near  Horn  in  the  district  of  Lippe,  of 
the  year  1115,  a  very  early  and  still  rude  attempt  at  a  repre- 
sentation   of  the    descent  from  the  cross,    formed  with  con- 
siderable freeness  and  boldness,  not  without  the  consultation 
of  Byzantine  models — remarkable  especially  on  account  of  its 
depicting  the  soul  of  the  dead  Redeemer  as  that  of  a  child, 
which  God  the  Father,  hovering  over  the  cross,  and  holding 
a  cross  banner,  takes  up  to  Himself;"  diverse  altar  or  station 
crosses  with   rich  adornment   in  gold,  filigree,  and   precious 

'  More  on  this  controversy  between  Cardinal  Humbert,  as  the  representative  of 
the  Romish  tradition,  and  the  Patriarch  Michael,  see  in  Hefele,  Coiiciliengesch., 
iii-  737  j  comp.  Gieseler,  KG.,  ii.  i.  387. 

^  An  engraving,  ^.^.,  in  Becker's  "  Charakterbilder  aus  der  Kunstgcschichte," 
S.  216. 


200  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

stones,  e.g.,  a  late  Romance  one  in  the  Mauritius  church 
at  Munster,  a  similar  one  in  ivory  in  the  cathedral  at 
Bamberg  ;  a  bronze  cross  with  elaborate  plastic  pedestal  in 
the  Soltykofif  collection  at  Paris  (twelfth  century) ;  a  cross 
in  the  cathedral  at  Regensburg  (Ratisbon)  belonging  to  the 
early  Gothic  age  (thirteenth  century),  especially  richly  adorned 
with  precious  stones,  remarkable  from  the  fact  that  Christ 
is  represented  in  the  middle  of  it,  sitting  and  teaching  with 
an  outspread  Bible  upon  His  knees.  The  simply  beautiful 
image  of  the  Crucified  One  between  John  and  Mary,  in  baked 
clay,  upon  the  altar  of  the  church  at  Wechselburg  (middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century),  also  deserves  being  brought  under 
notice ;  so  the  passion-scenes  of  the  altar-work  at  Triebsee 
in  Pomerania — this  crown  of  all  the  masterpieces  of  Gothic 
sculpture.^ 

The  works  of  PAINTING  in  the  Middle  Ages  belonging  to 
this  province  display  in  general  the  same  course  of  develop- 
ment as  the  sculpture  crosses,  with  v/hich  moreover,  especially 
in  the  earliest  centuries,  they  appear — by  virtue  of  their  pecu- 
liarity as  figures  of  mosaic,  enamel,  or  filigree-work — most 
intimately  allied.  The  earliest  and  simplest  attempts  in  this 
sphere  join  hands  as  it  were  with  the  most  delicately  wrought 
and  complicated  figures  of  early  Christian  monogrammatics, 
•side  by  side  with  which  their  production  for  a  while  pro- 
ceeds.    The  star  monograms  (Figs,  no,  iii),  of  the  time  of 


m 


Fig.  no.     Fig.  HI.         Fig.  112.  Fig.  113.     Fig.  114. 

the  sons  of  Constantine ;  the  somewhat  later  forms  (Figs.  1 1 2, 
113,  114), — the  last,  as  a  combination  of  the  Latin  cross 
with  the  name  of  Christ,  X,  a  specially  direct  precursor  of 
the  crucifix  figures;^   the   anchor  crosses  and  palm  crosses 

'  Kugler,  KL  Schriftcn,  i.  796  ff.  Otte,  Handh.  dc7-  kirchl.  KiinstarcJuioIo^qie, 
46  Aufl.,  S.  Ill,  696. 

*  Comp.  Le  Elant,  Inscriptions  C/nrtiennes  (Paris,  1856),  i.  pi.  37,  No.  227  ;  as 
well  as  Stockbaner,  S.  119,  156  f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    AHDDLE    AGES.  201 

(Figs.  115,  116),  and  so  forth/  show  in  this  primitive  Christian 
hieroglyphic  art,  the  budding  impulse  to  an  aesthetically  corre- 
sponding emblematic  representation  of  the  mystery  of  redemp- 
tion, as  having  reached  a  stadium  of  development  at  which 
the  transition  to  the  representation  of  the  Crucified  in  images, 

D 

r 


Fig.  115.  Fig.  116. 

strictly  so  called,  involved  but  a  single  step.  That  also  this 
step  was  made  with  hesitation,  is  evident  from  that  which  has 
been  above  observed  as  to  the  different  preparatory  stages 
to  the  plastic  crucifix  figures.  For  these  preparatory  stages 
partly  precede,  partly  advance  for  a  time  side  by  side  with, 
the  earliest  painted  representations  of  the  Crucified  One ; 
notably  the  images  of  a  lamb  in  combination  with  the  cross, 
with  doves,  with  the  four  streams  of  Paradise,  as  Paulinus  of 
Nola  introduced  them  into  his  churches,  were  partly  plastic, 
partly  executed  in  mosaic  painting.  In  like  manner  in 
the  later  phases  of  development  of  the  representation  of 
Christ  under  the  form  of  a  lamb,  or  also  in  combination  with 
the  cross,  there  were  besides  plastic  executions  in  relief,  etc., 
those  too  in  mosaic  painting.  Of  such  kind  were  the  repre- 
sentations of  the  lamb  for  slaughter  upon  the  altar  under  the 
cross  in  the  Cosmos  and  Damian's  church  of  Pope  Felix  IV. 
(524 — 530),  as  also  in  the  old  church  of  St.  Peter;  as  well  as 
that  of  the  cross,  surmounted  by  a  bust  of  Christ,  in  the 
church  of  San  Stefano,  belonging  to  the  seventh  century ; 
as  likewise  in  other  churches  of  Rome,  Ravenna,  etc.  That 
primitive  type,  too,  of  the  Byzantine  crucifixes  ^ — of  which 
the  cross  of  Theodolinde  in  Monza  is  the  earliest  plastic 
example  which  has  been  preserved  to  the  present  day,  and 
that  painting  of  Anastasius  Sinaita,  as  well  as  a  painting  by 
the  Syrian  monk  Rabulas,  probably  somewhat  older  still 
(upon  a  manuscript  of  the  Gospels  of  the  year  586,  now  exist- 

'  The  latter  form  asserted  to  be  of  frequent  occurrence  upon  the  graves  of 
martyrs,  as  well  as  upon  so-called  blood-phials. 
-  Either  graphic  or  plastic  representations  of  the  Saviour  on  the  cross. 


202  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

ing  in  Florence),  present  the  earliest  examples  in  painting — 
was,  as  is  clear  from  the  close  agreement  of  these  very  ex- 
amples, a  common  one  for  the  plastic  art  and  for  painting. 
Paintings  in  mosaic,  or  on  enamel,  on  glass,  as  also  wall  paint- 
ings, were  from  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  just  as 
frequently,  or  rather  for  the  East,  since  the  conclusion  of  the 
image  controversies,  much  more  frequently,  fashioned  in  ac- 
cordance with  this  prescriptive  type,  than  sculptures  in  ivory, 
metal,  stone,  or  wood.  And  these  eastern  paintings  of  the 
crucifixion  gradually  stiffened  to  the  type  of  the  most  rigid 
legal  constraint  of  ecclesiastically  dictated  tradition  ;  in  such- 
wise  that  the  main  and  characteristic  peculiarities  of  the 
Crucified  and  His  surroundings — the  nimbus  of  the  cross,  the 
bearded  face  of  the  dying  Saviour,  inclined  as  it  is  a  little 
to  one  side,  the  somewhat  broad  footboard,  with  a  twofold 
nailing  of  the  feet  thereto — the  malefactors  on  the  right  hand 
and  on  the  left,  John  and  Mary  in  like  manner ;  beneath  the 
cross  the  skull  of  Adam,  which,  according  to  legendary  tra- 
dition, lies  buried  here,  etc., — recur  without  any  important 
variation,  and,  at  least  in  the  adornment  of  churches,  must 
have  been  executed  most  mechanically  in  accordance  with  the 
prescribed  rules  of  the  painters'  handbook  of  Mount  Athos, 
ascribed  to  Manuel  Panselinus  in  the  eleventh  century.^ 

Very  much  more  freely  and  productively  was  the  painting 
of  the  West  able  to  develop  itself,  as  in  general  so  also  in 
our  special  domain.  If  at  the  same  time  Byzantine  artists 
continue  frequently  active  in  the  West — particularly  in  Italy 
— until  after  the  commencement  of  the  twelfth  century,  as 
instructors  and  refiners  of  the  taste,  yet  the  diversity  of  the 
ideas  embodying  themselves  in  the  western  paintings  repre- 
senting the  crucifixion  surpasses  in  a  very  high  degree  that 
of  the  eastern  ones.  Influenced  for  a  while,  among  other 
agencies,  by  the  highly  original  but  fantastic  and  monstrous 
representations   of  Irish  and  Ancient   British  painters,^   the 

'  Didron,  Maimd  cT Icoiiographie  Chrctiennc  Grecque  et  Latine,  Trad. par  Duraiid. 
Paris,  1845. 

^  A  characteristic  representation  of  such  an  Irish  drawing  of  the  ci-ucifixion, 
belonging  to  a  St.  Gall  MS.  of  the  lOth  century,  is  given  in  Stockbauer,  S.  198. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  2O3 

Prankish  and  German  crucifi;x  painting,  from  the  time  of  the 
Caroh'ngians,  begins  gradually  to  put  forth  a  whole  series  of 
peculiar  accompaniments  of  the  scene  of  the  crucifixion,  in 
which  are  reflected,  as  it  were   broken  into  many  colours, 
partly  the  legendary  creations,    partly  the    theological    and 
christological    speculations,    of    ecclesiastical    scholasticism. 
The  Redeemer,  depicted  until  the  thirteenth  century  for  the 
most  part  perfectly  living  and  without  any  painful  expression 
of  countenance,  appears,  according  to  the  example  furnished 
by  Charlemagne  in  his  mosaics  at  Aachen,  generally  clothed 
in  a  purple  dress,  sometimes  arrayed  in  a  kingly  crown,  the 
cross  frequently  conceived  of  as  the  Tree  of  Life,  and  therefore 
represented  as  the  natural  trunk  of  a  tree,  unhewn  and  of  a 
green  colour.^     Instead  of  the  surroundings  suggested  by  the 
Gospel  narrative,  among  which,  in  addition  to  John  and  Mary, 
the  centurion  Longinus  is  also  a  favourite  figure,  to  the  study 
of  which  special  affection  is  devoted,  there  arise  frequently 
new  personalities  of  symbolical  significance,  or  else  allegorical 
figures — sometimes  death  and  life,  sometimes  the  Church  and 
the  Jewish  synagogue,  sometimes  the  head  of  Adam,  sometimes 
a  serpent,  sometimes  a  cup  at  the  feet  of  the  Crucified,  for  the 
collecting  of  the  blood  flowing  from  His  side ;  in  like  manner 
sun  and  moon  indicated  in  various  modifications  above  the 
same,  etc.     Fresh  licenses  of  a  peculiar  nature  are  assumed 
by  the  school  of  painters  of  Middle  and  Upper  Italy — a  school 
which   gradually   attained   to  an   independent  development 
from  the  time  of  the  thirteenth  century.      Giunta  of   Pisa 
represents  the  Saviour  as  hanging  upon  the  cross,  already 
dead,  and  around  Him  six  weeping  angels  flying.     A  figure 
of  unknown  origin,  in  the  chapel  of  St.  Silvester  at  Rome,  of 
the  year  1248,  represents  Him  as  hanging  upon  a  fork-shaped 
cross,  with  arms  bent  upwards  in  the  figure  of  a  Latin  Y.^ 
Cimabue  (f  1300)  introduces  into  the  ecclesiastical  art  tra- 
dition the  placing  of  the  feet  one  above  the  other,  as  being 

'  On  the  cross  represented  as   the  Tree  of  Life,  see  Piper,  Ev.   Kal.^   1863, 
S.  86  f.,  and  the  engravings  3  and  4  belonging  to  S.  84. 
•  Comp.  above,  ch.  i,  b.,  p.  65. 


204  •  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

fastened  by  only  one  nail  to  the  stem  of  the  cross,  this  mode 
of  placing  them  having  been  shortly  before  contemned  and 
opposed  as  Albigensian  and  heretical — an  innovation  which, 
spite  of  the  visions  of  St.  Brigitta  (f  1373),  expressly  testifying 
to  the  nails  through  the  feet  having  been  two  in  number, 
pretty  quickly  obtained  the  ascendency  over  the  opposite 
opinion  and  custom/  From  the  time  of  Fiesole  the  "  soul- 
painter"  who  produced  works  of  wondrous  depth  and  feeling 
in  his  representations  of  the  Crucified  One  (f  1455)  on  the 
one  hand,  and  John  of  Eyk  (f  1470)  on  the  other,  increasing 
solicitude  is  directed  to  the  depicting  of  a  sorrowful  expres- 
sion in  the  face  of  the  suffering  Redeemer,  now  as  a  rule 
crowned  with  thorns ;  as  too  an  increasingly  touching  and 
affecting  mien  is  imparted  to  the  figures  of  John,  of  Mary, 
and  of  the  Magdalene,  standing  at  His  feet,  frequently  with 
the  result  that  no  longer  the  Crucified  One  Himself  appears 
the  main  figure  of  the  whole  group,  but  rather  these  witnesses 
of  His  death,  especially  the  two  Marys,  assume  this  character. 
— In  the  representations  too  of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord, 
belonging  to  the  later  Middle  Ages,  do  modes  of  conception 
in  many  respects  peculiar  with  regard  to  the  death  of  the 
cross  and  its  theological  significance  play  their  part.  Thus 
the  Risen  One,  as  a  rule  hovering  above  the  open  rock  sepul- 
chre and  the  guards  who  are  sleeping  beside  it  or  fleeing  in 
terror,  pretty  regularly  holds  in  His  hand  a  cross  banner,  the 
emblem  of  His  triumph  over  the  powers  of  death.  Exceptions 
to  this  mode  of  presentation  which  became  general  in  the 
Italian  painting,  especially  from  the  time  of  Giotto,  but 
already  frequently  occurred  even  earlier  in  the  German  art, 
are  comparatively  rare.  In  proof  of  the  extraordinarily  far- 
reaching  influence  exerted  by  the  idea  of  the  cross  upon  the 
ecclesiastical  art  products  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  general,  this 
mode  of  representing  the  resurrection  also  is  at  any  rate  very 
instructive  and  significant. 

If  we  add  to  that  which  has  already  passed  under  con- 

'  See  Appendix  VI.,  No.  7;  and  comp.  wliat  has  been  before  remarked  on  the 
controversial  writings  of  Lucas  Tudensis  against  the  Albigenses. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  20$ 

sideration  also  the  extensive  field  of  the  representations  of 
the  crucifixion  in  the  wider  sense,  especially  the  tablature 
of  the  Passion,  with  its  combinations  of  numerous  scenes 
from  the  history  of  the  Lord's  sufferings ;  and  if  we  con- 
sider that  precisely  within  the  sphere  of  this  passional 
painting-,  or  painting  of  altar  tablets,  the  art  of  the  expiring 
Middle  Ages — as  well  Germanic  as  Netherlandish — wrought 
its  pre-eminently  thoughtful  and  affecting  products,  we  are 
certainly  justified  in  concluding  that  the  painting  too  of  the 
Middle  Ages  has  presented  its  contributions  in  rich  abun- 
dance to  the  glorifying  of  the  cross,  or,  conversely,  that  upon 
its  products  also  there  has  passed  from  the  devout  contem- 
plation of  the  sacred  emblem  and  instrument  of  redemption 
a  specially  powerful  inspiring  and  fructifying  influence. 
Entirely  in  the  same  degree  as  the  ecclesiastical  archi- 
tecture and  sculpture  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  painting  does 
not  indeed  show  itself  dominated  by  the  idea  of  the  cross 
as  its  impelling  vital  force  and  central  guiding  motive  in 
all  artistic  creations ;  much  too  is  wanting  generally  to  its 
attainment  within  the  period  under  review  to  the  full  de- 
velopment of  its  creative  powers  and  to  the  true  maturity 
of  its  productions.  But  to  a  great  extent  it  maintains  the 
same  prominent  significance  even  within  this  sphere  of  art  ; 
and  that  manifestation  so  instructively  prominent  in  architec- 
ture and  the  plastic  art,  in  accordance  with  which  definitely 
the  most  intensely  religious,  the  most  deeply  Christian  con- 
ceptions of  the  artist  appear  as  almost  without  exception 
matured  beneath  the  cross  and  aglow  with  the  flame  of 
devotion  to  the  Crucified,  proves  itself  also  almost  equally 
without  exception  true  in  the  domain  we  have  just  contem- 
plated. 

As  a  peculiar  province,  effecting  the  transition  from  the 
graphic  or  plastic  art  to  the  poetic,  or  rather  simultaneously 
calling  into  requisition  both  modes  of  artistic  invention,  v/e 
have  further  only  to  mention  a  form  of  the  artistic  glorifica- 
tion of  the  cross  now  extinct — i.e.,  entirely  fallen  out  of  use — 
although  one  greatly  cultivated  in  the  Middle  Ages.     We 


206  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

mean  the  application  of  the  cross-form    as  groundwork  for 
acrostic  and  other  artistically  arranged  compositions  of  a  re- 
ligious ascetic  import,  or,  briefly,  the  Latin  devotional  POETIC 
COMPOSITION  IN  THE  FORM  OF  A  CROSS.    The  earliest  known 
example  of  this  remarkable  species  of  art,  belonging  half  to 
the  domain  of  poesy,  half  to  the  domain  of  graphic  emblema- 
tisation,  we  owe  to  Hrabanus  Maurus,  the  brightest  star  of 
the  intellectual  firmament  of  Germany  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  Carolingian  age.     It  is  a  poem  in  hexameters,  divided 
into   twenty-eight   sections    or   figures,    composed    "To   the 
praise  of  the  sacred  Cross,"  at  all  events  while  he  was  yet 
a  simple  monk  of  the  convent  at  Fulda,  before  his  elevation  to 
the  abbacy  thereof,  and  thence  to  the  archbishopric  of  Mainz 
— as  indeed  the  art  exercise  in  question  presupposes  the  abun- 
dant leisure  of  conventual  retirement  and  freedom  from  time- 
consuming  earthly  engagements.     A  mention  of  Alcuin,  the 
instructor  of  Hraban,  occurring  in  the  poetic  preface  to  the 
composition,  might  seem  to  favour  the  supposition  that  it 
was  composed  during  Alcuin's    lifetime,  thus  before  804 — 
perhaps  during  the  stay  of  about  a  year  on  the  part  of  the 
youthful  Fuldensian  monk  with  Alcuin  in  Tours,  or  shortly 
afterwards.    But  the  likeness  of  the  young  Emperor  Louis  the 
Pious  already  prefixed  to  the  poem  in  the  early  manuscripts, 
and  further,  the  existence  of  a  later  added  dedication  of  the 
poem  to  Pope  Gregory  IV.  (827 — 844),  as  well  as  the  statement 
of  the  Fuldensian  annals  of  the  year  844,  that  two  monks  of 
the  said  convent  conveyed  the  work  to  Rome,  to  the  successor 
of  this  Gregory,  Sergius   II.  (844 — 847), — all  this  combined 
renders  probable  the  supposition  of  a  later  date  of  compo- 
sition, most  likely  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Louis  the 
Pious.     The  twenty-eight  divisions  or  hexameter-groups  of 
the  poem  are  constructed  in  such-wise  that  one  part  of  the 
letters,  without  injury  to   the   connection  in  other  respects, 
yields  alone  a  special  sense,  which  refers  to  the  virtues  and 
glories  of  the  sacred  cross.     And  indeed  these  separate  letters 
(in  the  manuscripts  and  editions  ordinarily  printed  in  red, 
and  enclosed  by  red  lines)  form  on  each  occasion  a  cross  of 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  20/ 

simpler  or  more  complicated  structure ;  simplest  in  the  third 
figure,  where  great  uncial  letters — each  enclosing  within  itself 
several  smaller  ones — yield  together  the  crosswise  interpene- 
trating words  Crux  and  Sahis, — 

C 

R 
SALVS 

V 

X, 
more  complicated  in  other  divisions,  where,  e.g.  (as  in  the 
fifth),  four  squares,  each  containing  an  hexameter,  surround 
a  cross,  likewise  composed  of  hexameters,  as  emblems  of  the 
four  corner-stones  of  the  house  of  God,  namely  the  Patriarchs, 
Prophets,  Apostles,  and  Martyrs;  and  many  other  similar 
arrangements.  The  elements  combined  by  means  of  the 
separate  red  letters  sometimes  too  form  hexagons  or  other 
geometrical  figures,  out  of  which  the  form  of  the  cross  arises ; 
occasionally  also  delicately  shaped  blossoms,  symbolic  animal 
forms  or  angel  figures — denoting  the  cherubim  and  seraphim, 
as  well  as  the  animals  of  the  Evangelists — finally  some  few 
times  also  figures  of  human  shape,  as  in  section  i.  the  Saviour 
Himself  standing  with  outstretched  arms;  in  the  last  section 
the  poet  kneeling  in  lowly  adoring  position  beneath  a  cross, 
as  well  as  upon  the  dedication  page  in  the  front  the  heroic 
form  of  the  emperor  Louis,  with  the  shield  in  the  left  hand, 
and  a  long  cross-spear  in  the  right. — Not  quite  so  excessively 
artificial  and  idly  toying,  but  yet  like  the  other  presupposing 
a  considerable  labour  of  thought  and  an  ingeniously  com- 
puting art  of  drawing  as  of  composing,  appears  the  poetic 
glorification  of  the  cross,  constructed  upon  a  principle  in 
many  respects  diverse  from  that  of  the  previous  work,  by  the 
seraphic  doctor  of  the  Franciscan  order,  St.  Bonaventura 
(t  1274).  The  frontispiece  to  his  edifying  treatise  con- 
sists of  "the  Tree  of  Life,"  followed  by  the  explanations 
added  in  the  preface  to  this  treatise.  An  exceedingly  large 
leafy  tree,  in  the  conformation  of  its  boughs  and  branches 
representing  a  triple   cross    (with   three   pairs  of  transverse 


208  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

arms  ranged  one   above   another),   bears   upon    each   of  its 
twelve  main   branches — as   it   were   the   spiritual   leaves   or 
fruits  of  these  branches — four  verses,  having  reference  to  the 
characteristic  features  and  conditions  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  and 
describing  successively  His  Divine  origin  and  walk,  His  suf- 
fering  on  the  cross,  and   His  glorification.      The  object  of 
the  whole  lucid  presentation,  at  once  graphic  and  poetic,  is 
according  to    the   statement   of  the  author  to  afford  to  the 
disciples  who  desire  to  be  crucified  with   Christ   (Gal.  ii.  20) 
guidance  to  an    intimate,   living,  and    loving   contemplation 
of  His  sufferings.     To  this  end  he  had  gathered  out  of  the 
forest  of  the  Gospel,  in  Avhich  the  life,  sufferings,  and  glory  of 
the  Lord  are  fully  treated  of,  a  "  bundle  of  myrrh  "  (Cant.  i. 
13),  and  had  in  such-wise  arranged  that  which  was  gathered, 
"  by  means  of  a  figurative  tree,  that  in  the  lowest  branches  of 
this  tree  the  origin  and  life  of  the  Redeemer  should  be  de- 
scribed, in  the  middle  ones  His  sufferings,  and  in  the  upper- 
most His  glory."     And  in  truth  "there  stand  upon  the  first 
series  of  branches,  alphabetically  arranged  on  either  side,  four 
inscriptions  ;  so  also  upon  the  second  and  the  third  ;  upon 
every  branch  hangs  a  fruit,  so  that  they  appear  like  those 
twelve  fruit-bearing  boughs  of  the  Tree  of  Life  "  (Rev.  xxii.  2). 
As  a  dodecade  thus  do  the  eulogies  of  the  crucified  and  risen 
Saviour  appear,  consisting  on  each  occasion  of  four  verselets, 
and  growing  in  the  form  of  fruitful  branches  out  of  the  Tree 
of  Life.     The _y?rj-/ of  these  celebrates  "the  glorious  origin  of 
the  Saviour  and  His  sweet  birth;"  the  second,  the  lowly  walk 
of  His  condescension ;  the  tJiird,  the  dignity  of  His  perfect 
virtue  ;  the  foin-th,  the  fulness  of  His  overflowing  compassion  ; 
\.\iQ fifth,  His  confidence  in  the  peril  of  suffering;  the  i"£r//^, 
His  patience  under  injuries  and  revilings ;    the  seventh,  His 
steadfastness  under  the  pains  of  the  bitter  cross  ;  the  eighth, 
the  victory  obtained  by   His  death-conflict ;    the  ninth,  the 
newness  of  His   resurrection  with   its   wondrous   gifts ;    the 
tenth,   the  exalted  ascension  with  its   spiritual    graces  ;    the 
eleventh,  the  righteousness  of  the  future  judgment ;  the  tivclfth, 
the  eternity  of  the  Divine  kingdom.      As  examples  of  the 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 


209 


twelve  strophes,  each  consisting  of  four  lines,  and  throughout 

rhyming  by  means  of  the  final  syllable,  us,  may  here  be  cited  : 

No.  i: 
Jesus  origine  prreclarus,  quia 
Tex  Deo  genitus, 
)  prgefiguratus, 


Jesus 


J  emissus  coelitus, 
^Maria  natus. 


No.  2: 

Jesus  humiliter  conversatus,  quia 
rconformis  patribus, 
)  Magis  monstratus, 


Jesus 


]  submissus  legibus, 
^  regno  fugatus. 


No.  7: 

Jesus  constans  in  cruciatibus,  quia 

f  spretus  ab  omnibus, 

f         )  cruci  clavatus, 
Jesus  V 

I  lunctus  latronibus, 

^felle  et  aceto  potatus. 

No.  8  : 
Jesus  victor  in  conflictibus,  quia 

fSol  morte  pallidus, 
translanceatus, 
cruore  madidus, 
intumulatus. 


Jesus  glorious  in  origin,  because 
begotten  of  God, 
prophetically  heralded  ; 
sent  from  heaven, 
born  of  Mary. 

Jesus  of  lowly  walk,  because 
like  unto  the  fathers, 
proclaimed  to  the  wise  men, 
made  under  the  law, 
banished  from  His  kingdom. 

Jesus  steadfast  in  sufferings,  because 
mocked  by  all, 
nailed  to  the  cross, 
associated  with  the  thieves, 
receiving  as  His  drink  vinegar  and  gall. 


Jesus  victorious  in  the  death-conflict,  because 
as  the  sun  in  death  turned  pale, 
with  the  spear  transfixed, 
with  plenteous  drops  of  blood  bedewed, 
in  the  sepulchre  entombed. 

On  the  trunk  of  the  tree  beneath  the  crown  stands,  as  the 
comprehensive  programme  of  the  whole,  the  strophe  : 


O  crux  frutex  salvificus, 
vivo  fonte  rigatus, 
Cuius  flos  aromaticus, 
fructus  desideratus. 


O  cross,  salutary  stem, 
by  living  fountain  watered, 
whose  blossom  is  full  of  fragrance, 
whose  fruit  is  longed  for. 


Devotional  reflections  in  prose  then  explain  in  the  little  book 
itself  the  contents  of  the  12x4  lines  of  verse  ;  so  that  these 
recur  as  superscriptions  to  the  forty-eight  chapters  of  the 
tractate,  while  the  contents  of  the  whole  form  one  continuous 
meditation  on  the  history  of  the  Lord's  life,  with  specially 
detailed  consideration  of  His  sufferings  on  the  cross.  The 
ascetic  value  of  these  treatises  is  more  considerable  than  the 
poetic  value  of  the  delicately  playing  rhymelets  or  the  artistic 
value  of  the  designing  of  the  frontispiece,  carried  out  after  the 
manner  of  a  genealogical  tree  :  for  the  very  clumsy  and  taste- 

14 


2  10  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

less  way  in  which  this  is  executed  in  some  of  the  manuscripts 
and  editions  of  Bonaventura's  works  he  himself  cannot,  of 
course,  be  held  responsible.^  At  all  events,  the  composition 
taken  as  a  whole  is  not  in  point  of  originality  of  conception 
inferior  to  Hraban's  "  Praise  of  the  Cross."  As  a  creation  of 
the  mind  inbreathed  by  the  ardent  spirit  of  devotion  of  the 
seraphic  doctor  and  his  "  first  companions,"  does  the  little 
book  maintain  a  distinguished  place  among  the  products  of 
the  mystic  literature  of  an  edifying  nature  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  graphic-poetic  artistic  form  herein  employed, 
which  is  also  here  and  there  reproduced  by  later  authors — 
as,  e.g.,  by  Picus  of  Mirandola  in  his  Staurostichon — suffers 
indeed  from  a  certain  externality  akin  to  a  play  upon  words, 
but  nevertheless  merits  not  from  a  religious  aesthetic  point  of 
view  to  be  so  severely  judged,  as  for  example  the  carefully 
modelled  drawings  of  figures  with  which,  somewhat  later, 
Raymond  Lull  thought  of  demonstrating  to  his  disciples  the 
mysteries  of  the  natural,  the  logical,  and  the  moral  domain. 
Here  too  it  is  devotion  to  the  Crucified,  the  bringing  to  bear 
of  every  single  element  of  poetic  and  rhetorical  diction  upon 
the  Divine-human  centre  and  crown  of  all  Christian  conscious- 
ness alone,  which  determines  the  relative  value  of  the  whole, 
and  is  in  a  position  to  make  amends  to  a  certain  extent  for 
the  presence  therein  of  an  element  foreign  to  our  modern 
views  and  tastes. 


We  shall  contemplate  in  the  last  place  the  purely  poetic 
forms  of  the  artistic  objectivising  and  glorification  devoted  to 
the  cross. 

The  Poetry  of  the  Cross  of  the  Middle  Ages  forms 
too  an  exceedingly  interesting  domain,  a  domain  including  in 

'  Comp.,  e.g.,  the  illustration  prefixed 'to  the  said  tractate  (^Lignum  Vita,  pp. 
423—432)  in  the  Lyons  edn.  of  Bonaventura's  works,  i.  p.  423  ;  similar,  though 
somewhat  better,  that  in  the  Venice  edn.  (Venet.  1754,  torn,  v.,  p.  393).  On  two 
ancient  illustrations  in  a  MS.  of  the  Psalter  in  the  Brit.  Museum  (Cod.  Arundel. 
83),  comp.  Piper,  Ev.  Kal.,  1863,  S.  87  f.,  who  gives  here  a  brief  analysis  and 
characterisation  of  the  tractate. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  2  I  I 

itself  no  small  diversity  of  particular  forms,  and  presenting 
within  the  same  many  an  art  product  of  permanent  worth. 
We  do  not  disconnect  the  contemplation  of  it  from  that  of 
the  graphic  and  plastic  branches  of  art  directed  to  the  same 
end,  for  this  reason  only,  that  it  appears  on  many  points  to 
present  an  exact  analogy  to  these  in  their  peculiar  features ; 
and  because  its  separation  from  them  by  devoting  to  it  a 
special  chapter  would  not  render  sufficiently  apparent  the 
close  interchange  of  operation  which,  as  already  has  been 
shown  in  the  remarks  upon  the  graphically  illustrated  Latin 
poetry  of  the  cross,  and  as  will  be  further  evident  from  the 
remarks  on  the  passion  plays,  exists  between  some  of  its 
characteristic  forms  and  the  corresponding  modes  of  the 
plastic  art  activity. 

The  Lyrics  of  the  Cross,  under  which  head  we  may 
range  pretty  nearly  the  whole  extensive  province  of  the 
composition  of  passion  songs,  together  with  the  hymns  or 
prayerful  effusions  having  reference  to  the  Holy  Cross,  its 
spiritual  and  miraculous  gifts  and  properties,  extends  in  its 
earliest  productions  far  back  into  the  time  of  early  Church 
history.  It  is  true  the  original  type  of  all  Christian  hymn 
poetry,  the  hymn  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  to  the  Redeemer, 
does  not  yet  present  the  idea  of  the  death  of  the  cross  in 
its  central  significance ;  it  displays  at  best  a  certain  nearer 
kinship  with  the  hymnology  of  the  cross  in  later  times,  in 
this  respect,  that  he  piles  up  a  luxuriant  abundance  of  the 
symbolically  significant  names  and  glorifying  attributes  of 
the  Redeemer,  with  which  on  the  one  hand  he  recalls  to  our 
mind  the  Orphic  hymns  of  classic  antiquity  (which  possessed 
generally  for  him  a  typical  character),  with  their  combinations 
of  manifold  names,  e.g.,  of  Zeus,  of  Aphrodite,  etc.,  and  on 
the  other  becomes  himself  a  pattern  for  later  poets  or  mystic 
devotional  writers  in  the  Church,  who  delight  in  similar 
allusive  accumulations  of  names  or  attributes  of  God,  of  the 
holy  Virgin,  of  Christ,  and  more  especially  of  Christ  crucified.^ 

So,  e.g.,  Hrabanus  Maurus  at  the  beginning  ot  the  poem  before  spoken  of 
De  laudibtts  S.   Cnicis  (Fig.   i),  where  altogether  there  are  combined  sixty-six 


212  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

But  several  early  Christian  Greek  poets  of  the  period  im- 
mediately succeeding  Clement  already  afford  contributions  to 
the  lyric  glorification  of  the  Redeemer's  passion  or  of  His 
cross.  As  the  earliest  indeed  must  we  regard  the  unknown 
author  of  that  prophecy  of  Christ's  advent  in  acrostic  hexa- 
meters, placed  in  the  mouth  of  the  Erythraean  sibyl — a  pro- 
phecy which  Constantine  the  Great,  so  early  as  the  time  of 
the  Council  of  Nicaea,  adduced  in  his  address  to  the  assembled 
fathers  as  a  marvellous  testimony  for  revealed  truth,  and 
whose  thirty-four  verses  represent  by  their  initial  letters  the 
names,  "Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God,  Saviour,  Cross."  ^  At 
some  distance  follows  Gregory  Nazianzen  with  some  of  his 
poems,  e.g-.,  a  hymn  to  Christ  on  the  Paschal  festival,  a 
"driving  away  of  the  evil  one  (through  the  cross)  and  a  calling 
upon  Christ ; "  ^  later,  in  the  seventh  century,  the  patriarch 
Sophronius  of  Jerusalem  with  his  hymn,  "to  the  glorious 
cross,"^  celebrating  the  wonders  of  the  cross  belonging  to  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre — the  cross  carried  away  by 
Chosroes  and  restored  again  by  Heraclius  ;  as  moreover  several 
other  Greek  poets  whose  names  are  unknown.*  The  Syrian 
Church  too  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  rich  in  song, 
yields  important  contributions  towards  the  glorifying  of  our 
object,  in  its  peculiarly  luxuriant,  abundantly  figurative  mode 
of  representation  ;  it  celebrates  the  cross  now  as  the  heavenly 
ladder,  now  as  a  bridge  for  passing  over  into  the  heavenly 
kingdom,  now  as  a  rudder  for  life's  little  bark,  etc.  The 
highest  soaring  and  most  daring  flight  in  this  order  of  poetry 
is  made  by  Cyrillonas  in  his  poetic  "  homilies  on  the  Paschal 
festival,"  in  which  the  cross  is  lauded  as,  intei'  alia,  the  all- 
closing  bar  opened  by  Christ,  the  key  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  and  of  the  graves,  the  mill  grinding  the  precious  wheat 

eiTcomiastic  names  of  Jesus ;  nineteen  more  than  Pope  Damasus,  for  instance,  had 
combined  in  one  of  his  carmina. 

'  'I.  X.  9.  T.  S.  2.  (=  'Ix^i^i  Srai'/)6s.)  Vid.  Constanthii  Orat.  ad  Sanctor. 
Cxtum,  c.  i8  in  Eusebii  scripta  histor.  ;    and  comp.  Orac.  Sibyll.,  viii.  217  sqq. 

■-'  'Aworpoirr)  toD  Ilovrfpov  Kal  rov  'Kpiarov  iTTLKXrjcris,  Carmin.  var.,  No.  21,  in 
0/>/>.  Greg.  Naz.,  ed.  Colon.  1690,  t.  ii.  p.  94.     Comp.  Carm.  61  ad  Nemesium. 

'  El?  Thv  Ti/xiov  (TTavpSv,  in  Daniel,  TAes.  Hymnolog.,  iii.  36. 

*  See,  e.g.,  Daniel,  as  before,  p.  134,  TpoTrdpia.    Ibid.,  Il/sdj  Xpia-rbv  (TTavpuBivTa.. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  2  I  3 

of  the  body  of  Christ,  the  high-towering  vine  bearing  the 
sweet  cUister  Christ,  the  sacred  altar  of  the  nations.^  To  an 
offensive  degree  of  turgidity  are  these  laudations  of  the  cross 
carried  in  the  homilies  of  Isaac  of  Antioch,  on  Adam  and 
Christ,  on  Christ  and  the  two  malefactors,  on  virginity  as  the 
fruit  of  the  cross.  "  Christ,"  it  is  here  said,  inter  alia,  "  had 
ascended  the  cross  and  bore  us  anew,  in  order  that  the  dragon 
might  not  bite  us;  up  upon  the  wood  he  laid  His  young  ones, 

that  they  might  not  be  trampled  by  the  foxes Dying, 

He  bowed  Himself  in  pains,  and  bore  us  upon  the  cypress 
tree,  in  order  that  the  basilisk  might  not  destroy  us.  As  the 
stork  upon  the  summit  of  the  cedar  made  He  His  nest  far 
away  from  the  serpent,  ....  the  crown  of  thorns  upon  His 
head  placed  He  as  a  wall  around  His  nest ;  He  gathered 
therein  the  nations,  whom  He  had  borne  afresh  by  His  suffer- 
ings, that  they  might  remain  in  quiet,  and  that  the  hawk 
might  not  force  his  way  to  them  to  rend  them,"  and  so  forth.'^ 
The  Latin  Poetry  of  the  West  has  not  indeed  preserved 
itself  entirely  free  from  similar  departures  from  the  standard 
of  good  taste,  yet  its  abundance  of  noble  and  sterling  products 
of  this  nature  is  relatively  much  larger.  Its  productiveness 
in  this  domain  moreover  extends  from  the  times  of  Ambrose 
and  Prudentius  through  all  the  centuries  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Reformation.  From  a  period  so  early  as  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries  a  few  not  unimportant  contributions  are  to  be  speci- 
fied :  the  Ambrosian  Easter  Hymn  Ad  canam  agni  providi, 
not  indeed  composed  by  the  celebrated  Bishop  of  Milan,  but 
yet  at  any  rate  belonging  to  the  most  ancient  of  the  so-called 
Ambrosian  hymns  ;  ^  several  Passion  Hymns  and  Easter 
Hymns  of  Prudentius,  and  amongst  these  the  Quadriagesimal 
Hymn  Ciiltor  Dei  memento,  of  which  the  laudation  of  the 

'  G.  Bickell,  Ausgeivdhlte  Gcdkhte  syrischer  Kirchenviiter,  Cyrillonas,  etc., 
(Kempten,  1872),  S.  37  ff.,  46  fif.  Comp.  Zingerle,  "  Proben  syrischer  Hymno- 
logie,"  Tiib.  Theol.  Qnartalsch?:,  1873,  iii->  espec.  S.  473. 

^  Zingerle,  "  Ueber  und  aus  Reden  von  zwei  syrischen  Kirchenvatern  liber  das 
Leiden  Jesu."     Tiib.  Theol.  Qtiartahchr.,  1870,  i.  S.  92  fif. 

^  Only  four  of  the  so-called  Hymni  Anibrosiam  were  composed  by  Ambrose 
himself.     See  A.  Ebert,  Gcsch.  dtr  christlich-lateinischen  Literaiiir,  i.  171  f. 


2  14  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST, 

demon-expelling  operation  of  the  symbol  of  the  cross  has 
been  already  dwelt  upon  by  us ;  several  of  the  same  kind  by 
Sedulius,  as,  Hymmivi  dicanms  Domino,  as  also  Rex  (Zterne, 
Domine,  and  others ;  several  poems  by  Paulinus  of  Nola,  at 
the  same  time  active  for  the  glorifying  of  the  cross  in  the 
domain  of  architecture,  sculpture,  and  painting ;  also  the 
hymn  usually  ascribed  to  Cyprian,  but  in  reality  proceeding 
from  the  pen  of  his  contemporary  Paulinus,  "  of  Passover  or 
the  Cross,"  in  sixty-nine  hexameters,  as  well  as  another  hexa- 
meter poem,  De  passione  Christi  ("  Quisquis  ades,  mediique 
subis  in  limine  templi,"  etc.),  current  under  the  name  of  Lac- 
tantius,  but  which  can  only  be  of  considerably  later  origin  ; 
not  less  the  epigram  "  upon  the  Holy  Cross,"  by  the  African 
grammarian  Calbulus,  about  the  year  500,  and  so  forth.^  Its 
time  of  splendour  is  celebrated  by  the  earlier  Latin  hymnology 
during  the  second  half  of  the  sixth  century  in  the  composi- 
tions of  Gregory  the  Great  {Rex  Christe,  factor  omnium,  and 
Lignnm  criicis  mirabile — the  latter  a  song  for  the  celebration 
of  the  festival  of  "the  Invention  of  the  Cross"),  and  still  more 
in  those  of  Venantius  Fortunatus,  Bishop  of  Poitiers 
(t  about  600).  This  latter  merits  above  all  other  poets  of  earlier 
western  Christendom  to  be  designated  simply  the  Singer  of  the 
Cross.  His  pious  intercourse  with  the  Thuringian  princess  and 
Frankish  queen  Radegonde  (widow  of  Clotaire  I.),  foundress 
and  abbess  of  the  cloister  of  the  Holy  Cross  near  Poitiers, 
inspired  him  with  various  songs  of  praise  for  the  emblem  and 
instrument  of  redemption,  songs  which  belong  to  the  most 
glorious  products  of  spiritual  composition  of  any  age.  Partly 
too  may  these  have  been  occasioned  by  the  present  of  a 
relic  consisting  of  a  fragment  of  the  True  Cross,  sent  by  the 
emperor  Justin  II.  to  Radegonde,  for  which  Fortunatus  was 
charged  to  compose  a  lengthy  poetical  epistle  of  thanks- 
giving.^ At  any  rate  they  are  of  incomparable  beauty,  and 
this  indeed  is  the  case  not  only  with  the  two  Passion  hymns, 

'  Ebert,  S.  413.     August!  {Denkzu.  ii.  135)  and  Stockbauer  (189  f.)  ascribe  the 
poem  De  pass.  Clij-istilo  Venantius  Fortunatus. 

*  So  conjectured,  not  without  probabihty,  by  Ebert,  S.  509. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  2l5 

especially  well  known,  and  spread  far  and  wide  by  later 
hymnals,  Pangue  lingua  gloriosi  and  Vexilla  regis  prodeiint, 
but  also  with  the  morning  song  Crtcx  fidclis,  inter  ojujiis  (in- 
tended for  recitation  at  morning  prayer,  after  the  Betiedicamus, 
the  seven-lined  strophes  alternating  with  "  Crux  fidelis,"  and 
closing  with  "  Dulce  lignum  "  as  a  refrain),  as  finally  with  the 
glorious  distichs  "  upon  the  cross  of  the  Lord,"  Crtix  beiiedicta 
nitef,  etc.,  in  which  the  conception  of  the  cross  as  the  Tree  of 
Life,  which  runs  through  all  these  songs,  attains  its  fairest  and 
most  touching  expression  : 

"  Thou  shinest,  hallowed  Cross,  whereon  Christ  did  hang  in  the  flesh, 
And  in  His  own  blood  our  wounds  healed. 

Mild  in  pitying  love  became  He  an  offering  for  sinners  ; 
Holy  Lamb,  Thou  snatchedst  us  out  of  the  jaws  of  the  wolf. 

Here  with  pierced  hand  redeems  He  the  world  from  destruction, 
Bars  in  His  own  death,  gracious,  to  death  itself  the  way. 

To  this  with  bloody  nails  was  fixed  the  hand 

Which  Peter  from  death,  Paul  from  transgressions  drew  forth. 

Wondrous  fruitfulness  !     O  thou  sweet,  glorious  tree  of  the  cross  ! 
Fruit  such  as  none  else  e'er  bore,  bears  thy  deep-laden  bough. 

Again  from  the  scent  of  the  fruit  arises  revived  the  departed. 
Returns  from  the  dark  grave  to  life  again  restored. 

None  smites  the  heat  beneath  the  loved  shade  of  the  cross, 
Nor  moon  by  night,  nor  yet  by  day  the  sun. 

Shining,  stand'st  thou  planted  beside  life's  flowing  waters, 
Spreadst,  with  flowers  adorned,  kindly  thy  leaf  crown. 

Between  thine  arms  hangs  clinging  the  vine-stock, 

Which  yields  forth  the  wine  most  precious,  darkling  with  hue  of  crimson." 

Each  following  century  has  its  poetry  of  the  cross  of 
greater  or  lesser  significance  to  display.  To'  the  eighth 
belongs  Bonifacius,  who,  in  his  acrostic  hexameters  entitled 
yEjiigmata,  describes  the  principal  virtues  of  the  Christian  as 
ten  golden  apples,  growing  upon  the  stem  of  the  cross  of 
Christ  as  the  true  Tree  of  Life,  and  opposes  to  these  the  ten 
vices  as  fruits  of  the  fatal  tree  of  pestilence  of  which  Adam 
once  ate.  To  the  ninth  century  belongs — in  addition  to 
Hraban's  artistic  composition  before  referred  to,  as  moreover 

'  From  the  German  rendering  of  Pachtler,  in  Bassler,  Auswahl  altchristl.  Lieder 
((Berlin,  1858),  S.  64. 


2i6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

some  single  hymns  of  Theodulf  of  Orleans  {f  821)— a  series  of 
distichtic  poems  of  Scotus  Erigena,  versified  prayers,  parse- 
neses  or  lyric  descriptions,  sometimes  having  reference  to  the 
cross,  sometimes  to  the  Crucified  One  Himself,  His  Descent 
into  Hades,  His  Resurrection,  and  Ascension,  in  many  of 
their  parts  of  no  small  poetic  value;  so  that  the  gifted 
precursor  of  the  later  scholastic  and  mystic  speculation  takes, 
by  virtue  of  these  compositions,  a  position  not  altogether 
subordinate  among  the  intellectual  poets  of  the  Middle  Ages.^ 
For  the  close  of  the  tenth  and  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
century  we  may  mention  Fulbert  of  Chartres,  one  of  the 
most  influential  of  the  immediate  precursors,  or  rather 
founders,  of  the  scholastic  tendency  of  thought  (f  1028), 
among  whose  works  there  exists  a  poem  in  hexameters,  not 
without  value,  "  De  s.  cruce."  ^  In  the  eleventh  century  our 
order  of  poetry  is  further  represented  by  Peter  Damiano 
(t  1072)  in  some  of  his  Carmina ;  ^  in  the  twelfth,  pre- 
eminently by  St.  Bernard  with  his  seven  hymn-prayers, 
transfused  with  ardent  love,  to  the  limbs  of  Christ's  body, 
which  have  been  translated  into  German  by  Paul  Gerhardt, 
as  also  Adam  de  St.  Victor,  author  of  the  hymn  Landcs 
criicis  attollamns ;  in  the  thirteenth,  Bonaventura  with  his 
glorious  "song  of  praise  {Laudismus)  of  the  Holy  Cross:" 
Recordare  sanct(Z  cmcis,  his  brief  but  fervent  horn,  or  short 
prayers  for  the  canonical  hours,  on  the  passion  of  the  Lord 
and  the  pangs  of  Mary,  as  also  several  other  highly  poetic 
glorifications  of  our  object,  which — apart  from  his  Lignum 
zitce,  of  which  we  have  before  treated — he  has  left  behind  him ; 
about  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth,  Jacoponus,  the  singer 
of  the  Stabat  mater,  or  the  sequence  of  the  seven  pangs  of 
the  blessed  Virgin  ;  further  on,  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  also  a  succession  of  more  or  less  well-known 
composers  of  sequences  and  hymns,  whose  passion-songs 
form   important    and    in    many  cases   exceedingly  affecting 

'  A  further  examination  is  devoted  to  his  merits  with  respect  to  this  class  of 
poetry  in  Appendix  VIH. 
-  His  hexameter  Carin.  12,  de  S.  Cruce,  we  give  in  Appendix  VIII. 
^  Comp.  /V/r.  Dam.  oJ>J>.,  ed.  Paris,  1642,  tom.  iv.,  p.  6  sq. 


IN    THE   CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  2  1/ 

accompaniments  to  the  passion-pieces  of  the  contemporary 
painters.  Yet  close  to  the  very  edge  of  the  expiring  Middle 
Ages,  Sebastian  Brant  composed,  under  the  influence  of  the 
newly  revived  classical  science  and  art,  his  "  wreathlet  of 
roses,  plaited  out  of  the  flowers  of  the  life  and  sufferings 
of  Jesus,  and  entwined  with  blood-red  roses  of  compassion," 
fifty  verses  in  Sapphic  metre,  to  which — spite  of  the  to  some 
extent  word-playing  and  toying  nature  of  their  contents — 
an  independent  poetic  aspiration  cannot  by  any  means  be 
denied.^  Truly  beautiful  and  touching  also  is  the  ode  "  On 
the  Cross  of  Christ  "  (Crux  ave,  prcesignis  arbor)  of  Jacob 
Montanus  of  Spires,  whose  life  extended  even  to  the  age  of 
the  Reformation. 

In  addition  to  this  copious  abundance  of  lyric  elegiac — 
partly  also  epigrammatic  or  didactic — glorifications  of  the 
Cross,  there  early  arose  a  not  less  considerable  number  and 
diversity  of  epic  compositions.  The  epic  poetry  of  the  cross 
coincides  essentially  just  as  much  with  the  legendary  com- 
positions touching  the  Tree  of  Life,  as  does  its  lyric  poetry 
with  the  hymn  poetry  of  the  Passion.  Long  even  before 
Venantius  Fortunatus  sang  his  magnificent  songs  of  praise  to 
the  cross  as  the  resplendent  Tree  of  Life  laden  with  precious 
fruits,  were  the  germs  of  that  legend-poetry  of  the  wood  of 
the  cross,  so  luxuriantly  developed  in  the  later  Middle  Ages, 
already  present.  Their  earliest  traces  are  lost  in  the  Gnostic 
circles  of  the  second  century  of  our  aera.  The  apocryphal 
Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  unquestionably  influenced  by  the 
speculations  of  this  circle,  in  its  second  part,  which  describes 
with  true  poetic  boldness  of  conception  Christ's  descent  to 
Hades,  not  only  places  the  redemption  by  the  cross  in  sig- 
nificant antitypical  opposition  to  the  once  deadly  operation 

'  See  the  same  in  Wackernagel,  Das  deiitsche  Kirchenlied,  i.  S.  252.  In  the 
same  work,  S.  226  ff.,  will  be  found  Sebastian  Brant's  ^'Rosarium  ex  Jioribus  vitie 
passionisque  domini  nostri  J.  Christi  consertittn'^  etc.  etc.,  as  also  in  great  part 
the  other  hymns  of  the  Middle  Ages  mentioned  by  us.  Those  omitted  by  him 
will  generally  be  found  in  the  collections  oi  Daniel  or  Mone.  For  a  worthy  trans 
lation  of  many  of  the  most  celebrated  among  them,  see  the  Medieval  Hymns  and 
Sequences  of  Dr.  John  Mason  Neale,  Lond.,  1851. 


2l8  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  in  Paradise — "  Come  with  me," 
says  the  Lord  as  He  leads  forth  Adam  out  of  the  prison,  "  all 
ye  who  have  died  through  the  wood  which  this  man  hath 
touched  :  all  of  you  I  make  alive  again  by  the  wood  of  the 
cross,"  etc. — but  it  has  also  already  the  tradition  of  the  Tree 
of  Life  in  Paradise,  and  of  the  "  oil  of  compassion  "  trickling 
down  from  the  same.  For  this  oil,  so  it  goes  on  to  relate,  the 
patriarch  Adam  when  he  had  fallen  sick  sent  his  son  Seth  in 
vain  to  the  gate  of  Paradise ;  the  latter  here  received  from 
the  Archangel  Michael,  instead  of  the  desired  miraculous 
remedy,  a  consoling  prophecy  in  relation  to  Christ  the  Son  of 
God,  who  after  5500  years  should  come  down  to  earth,  and 
who  would  then  anoint  and  heal  the  suffering  father  of  man- 
kind with  the  desired  oil.  In  connection  with  this  ingenious 
legend,  which  lies  before  us  in  later  apocryphal  documents 
wrought  up  in  a  form  yet  somewhat  more  complicated,  there 
arise  at  an  early  period  also  some  other  legendary  traditions, 
developed  out  of  the  antitypical  parallels  of  Adam  and 
Christ,  or  of  the  fall  and  redemption  (Rom.  v.  12  ff.)  So 
especially  the  alleged  fact  of  Adam's  being  buried  on 
Golgotha,  at  the  place  over  which  the  cross  of  Christ  was 
raised, — a  tradition  of  Jewish  origin,  already  mentioned  by 
Origen,  and  later  by  Athanasius,  Epiphanius,  Chrysostom, 
and  others,  which  obtained  a  footing  far  and  wide  in  the 
Eastern  Church  literature  and  art-tradition  of  antiquity  and 
the  Middle  Ages,  as  also — spite  of  the  adverse  judgment 
pronounced  upon  it  by  Jerome^ — with  many  authors  of  the 
West.  The  same  also  was  the  case  with  the  tradition, 
attaching  itself  still  more  immediately  to  the  primitive 
Christian  typology  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  of  the  descent  of  the 
w^ood  of  the  cross  from  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  ;  thus  of  the 

'  Hicro7jymns  in  Matt,  xxvii.  33  ;  in  Eph.  v.  14.  Comp.  Oreg.,  Ti-act.  35  in 
Matt.  (27);  Athanas.,  Serm,  in  pass,  et  criicem  Domini,  c.  12;  Epiphan.,  Har., 
46,  5  ;  Chrysost,  Ho7n.  85  in  Joann.  (19,  17),  See  in  general  :  Piper  "Adams 
Grab  auf  Golgattia,"  Ev.  Kal.,  1861,  S.  17  ff.,  and  the  illustration  there  given,  of  a 
remarkable  artistic  representation  of  the  cross  on  Golgotha,  to  which  the  head  of 
Adam  buiied  beneath  is  looking  up,  from  an  ivory  tablet  in  the  museum  at 
Darmstadt. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  219 

fabrication  of  the  instrument  of  salvation  out  of  the  very 
wood,  in  connection  with  which  the  first  sin  which  wrought 
the  ruin  of  the  human  race  was  perpetjrated — a  tradition  first 
appearing-  as  to  its  central  thought  in  the  "Anagogic  medi- 
tations on  the  work  of  the  six  days  "  of  Anastasius  Sinaitica 
(about  650),  and  later  zealously  espoused  and  developed  by 
western  narrators  of  legends  from  the  twelfth  century  down- 
wards;  first,  Canon  Lambert  at  St,  Omer,  about  1120  ;  then 
Peter  Comestor,  1170;  Herradof  Landsperg,  1 175;  Gervasius 
of  Tilbury,  12 12;  and  Jacobus  de  Voragine,  in  the  ''Golden 
Legend,"  about  1280/  Principally  out  of  these  elements,  but 
partly  also  out  of  mythically  confused  reminiscences  of  the 
discovery  of  the  cross  by  Helena,  and  the  exaltation  of  the 
cross  by  Heraclius  and  their  accompanying  wonders,  as  also 
finally  out  of  echoes  of  Celtic  or  Germanic  traditions  con- 
cerning the  Tree  of  the  World  (see  above,  p.  21),  transplanted 
into  a  Christian  soil,  is  the  legendary  material  composed, 
which  has  grown  especially  from  the  time  of  the  twelfth 
century  into  such  luxuriant  forms — a  material  wrought  up,  at 
first  epically,  but  ultimately  also  dramatically,  in  the  long 
series  of  legends  of  the  cross-wood  both  in  poetry  and  prose, 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon  poets  Caedmon  (Kaedmon),  and 
Kynewulf,  to  Calderon's  "  Sibyls  of  the  East  "  and  "  Dispute 
of  the  Trees  about  the  Kingship."  The  earliest  and  simplest 
of  the  products  belonging  to  this  order  are  (like  the  last, 
which  for  the  most  part  draw  out  of  an  abundant  store,  and 
dispose  with  particular  freedom  of  the  material),  the  most 
poetically  valuable.  Between  the  two  extremes  lies  much 
that  is  thoroughly  tasteless,  wildly  fantastic,  displeasing  from 
its  clumsiness  of  form,  affording  in  general  as  little  satis- 
faction to  the  aesthetic  as  to  the  religious  sense.  In  Caedmon's 
Genesis,  the  profound  "  prelude  of  Milton's  epos  at  the 
threshold  of  English  literature,"  as  it  has  been  fittingly 
termed,^  the  idea  of  the  Tree  of  Knovv^ledge,  planted  by 
Christ  in  Paradise,  as  type  or  progenitor  of  the  delivering 
tree  of  the  Cross,  stands  forth  as  yet  simply  and  distinctly, 

'  This  latter  popularised  by  Longfellow.     -  Carriere,  Die  Kimst,  etc.,  iii.  2,  S.  i  |J 


2  20  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

in  pristine  freshness  and  purity,  from  among  the  multitude 
of  apocryphal  additions  of  later  times.  The  first-born  Son  of 
God  Himself  relates  :    . 

"  I  had  placed  there  in  Paradise  a  new 

fruit-tree  with  branches,  so  that  apples  bore 

the  fruit-tree's  boughs  :  and  ye  both  ate  there 

the  glittering  fruit,  as  the  malignant  one  bade  you, 

the  minister  of  hell 

Then  I  was  grieved,  that  the  work  of  my  hands 
should  endure  the  fetters  of  the  prison  house. 

It  was  for  you 

wlien  me  upon  the  cross'  stem  the  warriors  pierced 
with  spears  upon  the  gallows  and  me  that  youth  did  thrust, 
and  I  came  upwards  to  the  eternal  gladness 
to  the  holy  Lord,  into  the  heavenly  kingdom,"  etc' 

In  Kynewulf 's  "  Christ "  too  are  to  be  found  remarkable 
echoes  of  the  tradition  of  the  cross-tree,  in  its  earliest  and 
simplest  form.  The  cross  appears  in  this  glorified  to  the 
ideal  form  of  the  king  of  all  the  trees  of  field  and  forest,  the 
life-diffusing  world- tree,  like  the  ash  Yggdrasill.  The  descrip- 
tion of  the  scene  already  alluded  to  by  Caedmon,  how  all  the 
other  trees  begin  to  weep  around  this  their  king,  the  tree  of  the 
cross,  presents  glorious  traits  which  remind  us  of  the  ancient 
Germanic  legends  of  Baldur.  "  The  cross  of  our  Lord  stands 
exalted  before  all  peoples,  the  shining  token,  the  beaming  tree, 
bedewed  with  blood,  the  pure  dropping  blood  of  the  King  of 
heaven  ;  its  bright  radiance  it  sheds  upon  all  creation,"  etc. 

"  Yea  the  trees  also  knew,  who  created  them  with  blossoms, 
many  and  not  few  :  when  the  mighty  God 
upon  one  of  them  was  lifted,  where  for  the  salvation 
of  the  dwellers  upon  earth  he  endured  torments  full  severe, 
a  death  full  of  suffering  for  the  people's  weal. 
Then  stood  with  bloody  tears  of  the  trees  many  a  one 
rolling  down  beneath  the  sky  red  and  thick  : 
their  sap  was  turned  to  blood.     This  they  cannot  tell, 
the  farsighted  dwellers  upon  earth, 
how  many  there  were  moved,  which  yet  could  not  feel."* 

Other  beautiful  renderings  of  the  same  legendary  material 

'  Grein,  DichUmgen  der  Angelsachsen,  etc.,  i.  143  f.  (out  of  "Christ  and  Satan," 
the  so-called  second  book  of  Caedmon). 

'■^  Grein,  i.  180  f.  Comp.  also  Fr.  Hammerich,  die  dlteste  cliristliche  Epik  der 
Angelsachsen,  tXz,     (From  the  Danish  of  Michelsea.)     Gutersloh,  1874.      S.  87. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  221 

are  afforded  by  Scb  hdlge  rod  ("The  Holy  Cross"),  the 
prophetic  visionary  composition  of  an  unknown  Anglo- 
Saxon  monk  of  Caedmon's  school — a  composition  which 
introduces  the  sacred  wood  of  the  cross,  the  glorious  tree  of 
victory  itself  as  speaking,  and  makes  it  relate  how  it  was  not 
only  a  silent  witness  of  the  Passion,  but  also  a  deeply  feelino- 
sharer  of  the  same.  "  I  trembled,  but  the  Lord  embraced 
me ;  yet  I  was  not  permitted  to  bow  me  to  the  earth,  to  fall 
into  earth's  bosom,  but  I  must  stand  fast.  As  a  cross  was 
I -raised;  I  lifted  up  the  rich  King,  the  Lord  of  heaven,  I 
might  not  bend.  They  pierced  me  with  dark  nails,  they 
mocked  us  both  together.  I  was  entirely  covered  with  blood, 
shed  out  of  the  side  of  the  man  after  he  had  breathed  out  his 
spirit,"  etc.* — Of  the  Christian  Epic  poets  in  the  sphere  of 
Old  High  German  literature,  Otfried  of  Weissenburg  belongs 
to  our  province,  who  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  book  of  his 
"  Krist "  glorifies  the  salutary  token  of  victory  in  the  cross 
with  traits  of  partially  the  same  nature  as  those  of  his  Anglo- 
Saxon  predecessors.  But  into  many  also  of  the  most  fruitful 
and  abundantly  cultivated  domains  of  secular  legendary  lore 
of  the  Romance  and  German  Middle  Ages  has  the  cross-legend 
forced  its  luxuriantly  prolific  shoots.  Even  if  we  should 
exclude  the  Niebulungen  Sage — although  even  the  red  cross 
which  Krimbild  marks  upon  the  cloak  of  Siegfried  in  order 
to  point  out  the  one  vulnerable  place  in  his  back,  affords 
a  significant  note  of  accord — yet  we  surely  at  any  rate  find 
in  the  legend  of  the  Holy  Grail  an  offshoot  from  the  legend 
of  the  wood  of  the  cross  :  that  blood-red,  passing  fragrant 
corallite,  or  grail-stone,  which  Wolfram  of  Eschenbach — in 
the  Parcival — characterises  as  the  "  food-bestower "  of  the 
Templars  {Templeiseii)  of  Salvatierra,  and  the  demon-expelling 
power  of  which  is  in  old  authors  expressly  derived  from  the 
circumstance  that  it,  the  red  corallite,  often  exists  in  the 
form  of  a  cross.^     In  the  German  Friedrichsage  ^  two  trees 

'  Grein,  ii.  140  fif.  ;  comp.  Jos.  Bach,  Doginengesch.  des  Mittelalters,  i.  84  f. 
-  So  the  Liber  de  natura  rerum  cited  by  Vincentius  of  Beauvais  in  the  Speculum 
nafurale,  viii.  c.  57. 

*  The  legend  of  the  Genntin  emperor  Frederick  (Frederick  II.  1215 — 1250), 


22  2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

play  an  important  part,  which  are  unmistakably  derived  from 
the  cycle  of  legends  concerning  the  wood  of  the  cross  :  the 
pitiful  dry  tree  which  grows  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  is 
called  the  tree  of  victory ;  and  the  ash-tree  upon  which  the 
emperor,  after  he  has  come  down  from  the  mountain,  hangs 
his  shield  while  he  musters  his  summoned  host  [Iieriban,  levy 
of  all  capable  of  bearing  arms  in  defence  of  the  country) 
around  him  for  the  great  decisive  conflict.  Dante's  Divine 
Comedy  too  glorifies  the  two  trees  of  Paradise.  The  poet 
under  the  guidance  of  Virgil  finds  the  Tree  of  Life  in  the  sixth 
circle  of  the  mountain  of  Purgatory,  where  the  souls  of  the 
penitents,  under  the  influence  of  the  oft-repeated  cry,  "  Blessed 
are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,"  in  self- 
consuming  longing  ever  encompass  the  sweetly  fragrant 
heavenly  food  of  the  fruits  of  this  tree,  because,  as  they  exclaim: 

"because  for  the  tree  that  impulse  fires  us, 

which  brought  Christ  gladly  thither  to  the  cross, 
on  which  his  precious  blood  our  shame  atoned." 

As  a  sublime  heavenly  counterpart  to  this  tree  of  the  mount 
of  purification,  which  affords  to  those  surrounding  it  the 
agonising  raptures  of  Tantalus,  there  then  appears  in  Paradise 
that  gigantic  and  brilliant  cross  of  radiance  in  the  sphere  ot 
Mars,  which  is  formed  by  the  blissful  spirits  of  those  who 
fought  and  fell  in  the  Crusades  for  the  cause  of  Christ.^ — 
Among  the  numerous  poetic  products  of  the  narrower  circle 
of  the  legends  of  the  cross-tree,  in  which  the  sending  of  Seth 
for  the  oil  of  compassion,  the  transplanting  of  a  slip  from 
the  Tree  of  Knowledge  from  Paradise  to  Jerusalem — where 
accordingly  the  cross  was  framed  from  the  trunk  which  grew 
out  of  it, — also  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple,  the  Sibylline 
prophecies  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  and  other  similar  fantastic 
embellishments  appear  as  of  particular  significance,  does  the 

who  was  popularly  believed  to  have  been  enclosed  in  the  Kyffhauser  Mountain, 
whence  his  return  was  earnestly  looked  for  by  the  German  people  about  the  close 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  This  expectation  may  now  be  regarded  as  in  some  sense 
realised  by  the  establishment  of  the  Protestant  empire  of  the  Hohenzollern,  the 
neighbours  and  kinsmen  of  the  Hohenstaufen, 
*  Farad.,  14,  124  ff. ;  comp.  Purgat.,  22,  131  ff. ;  23,  67  ;  24,  116  f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  22  3 

Middle  Low  German  poem  (of  the  fourteenth  or  beginning  of 
the  fifteenth  century),  "  van  denie  holte  des  Jiilligeu  cruzes," 
edited  by  E.  Schroder,  on  account  of  its  no  slight  artistic 
value,  merit  a  place  of  special  prominence. 

There  is  also,  finally,  a  Dramatic  Poesy  of  the  Cross, 
most  closely  allied  to  the  Epic  by  the  community  of  its 
material,  but  which  certainly  did  not  within  the  period  of  the 
Middle  Ages  ripen  to  such  a  fulness  of  important  products  as 
the  other.  The  drama  of  the  cross  coincides  essentially  with 
the  passion  play — this  lyrico-dramatic  objectivising  of  the 
fundamental  and  central  facts  of  salvation,  closely  allied  to 
the  liturgy  of  the  mass,  and  originally  held  exclusively  in  the 
Church  and  the  language  of  the  Church,  i.e.,  in  Latin — which 
only  gradually  from  the  time  of  the  thirteenth  century  assumed 
a  separate  place  as  an  independent  act  of  the  religious  service 
of  the  Church,  and,  together  with  the  plays  on  Corpus  Christi 
day,  in  celebration  of  the  miracle  of  Transubstantiation,  be- 
came the  principal  form  assumed  by  the  spiritual  drama.  The 
legendary  tradition  of  the  descent  of  the  wood  of  the  cross 
upon  Calvary  from  the  trees  of  Paradise  occupies,  in  these 
plays  too,  an  important  place.  More  particularly  in  the 
Complaints  of  Mary,  or  "  Disputes  between  Mary  and  the 
Holy  Cross,"  one  of  the  earliest  and  simplest  forms  of  the 
more  serious  order  of  spiritual  drama,  is  this  material  handled 
for  the  most  part  with  enthusiastic  zeal  and  with  telling 
effect.  In  one  of  the  old  English  Complaints  of  Mary,  edited 
by  Morris,  Mary  accuses  the  cross  of  being  a  false  tree ; 
unjustly  and  altogether  without  reason  had  it  destroyed  the 
pure  fruit  of  her  womb,  her  sweet  bird,  with  the  deadly 
draught  that  only  the  children  of  Adam  had  to  drink  ; 
whereas  no  stain  of  the  guilt  of  Adam  attached  to  her  Son. 
"  Cross,  thou  art  my  Son's  cruel  stepmother,"  cries  she  in  her 
anguish,  "  so  high  hast  thou  hanged  him  that  I  cannot  even 
kiss  his  feet !  Cross,  thou  art  my  deadly  foe ;  thou  hast 
beaten  my  bird  blue  ! " 

' '  Cros,  '^ou  boldest  hym  hige  on  hei^e, 
Hys  faire  feet  I  may  not  kysse  ; 


2  24  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Cros,  I  find  "^ou  art  my  fo, 
My  brid  fon  berist  beten  bio  ; 
Among  '^es  folys  frawdys." 

To  which  Sanaa  Crux  replies  :  "  Lady,  I  owe  to  thee  my 
honour;  thy  glorious  fruit,  which  I  now  bear,  makes  me 
beam  with  red  blood.  Not  for  thee  alone,  no,  to  save  the 
whole  world,  blossomed  this  fair  flower  in  thee.  .  .  .  Christ's 
blood  gave  me  baptism,  when  in  red  streams  it  spread  itself 
over  me,  the  tree  fashioned  of  cypress  and  olive  wood. 

'Crystis  blood  jaf  me  bapteme 
Bystreke  I  was  with  red  streme, 
Whan  Jesu  bled  vpon  a  beme 
Of  ciprefse  and  Olyue.' 

Thou  wast  crowned  queen  of  heaven  because  of  the  child 
which  thou  hast  borne.  I  shall  one  day  appear  as  a  bright 
relic  at  the  day  of  judgment ;  then  shall  I  take  up  my  com- 
plaint for  thy  holy  Son,  on  me  innocent  put  to  death."  By 
such  discourse  is  Mary  reconciled  to  the  cross  ;  she  gives  it  a 
kiss,  and  henceforth  manifests  her  love  towards  it.^  Farther, 
elaborated  dramatisings  of  the  material  under  review,  not 
merely  confined  to  a  colloquy  like  this,  have  also  been  men- 
tioned in  considerable  numbers  in  the  literature  of  the 
Passion  Plays  and  Mysteries  of  the  expiring  Middle  Ages. 
So  in  that  Siiesian  passional  of  the  fifteenth  century  recently 
edited  by  Birlinger  and  Crecelius,  which  represents  Christ  as 
dying  on  the  same  wood  which  was  the  instrument  of  Adam's 
sin  ;  in  the  French  mystery  of  the  same  century,  brought  out 
by  Jubinal,  in  which  the  sending  of  Seth,  the  son  of  Adam, 
to  fetch  the  oil  of  compassion  out  of  Paradise,  appears  also  to 
form  part  of  the  representation,  but  with  the  peculiar  modifi- 
cation that  the  consoling  promise  of  Adam's  eventual  healing 
is  given,  not  to  Seth,  but  to  Adam  himself,  and  Seth,  instead 
of  the  oil  he  had  sought,  takes  with  him  out  of  Paradise  a 
small  branch  from  the  Tree  of  Knowledge,  with  the  direction 

'  Dispute  between  Mary  and  the  Cross,  in  R.  Morris,  Legends  of  t lie  Holy  Rood, 
(Lond.  1871),  Append,  p.  197,  8.  Conip.  the  somewhat  more  extended  poem  of 
the  same  nature  from  another  MS.,  ibid.,  pp.  131  — 149. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  22  5 

to  plant  the  same  upon  his  father's  grave.^  Similarly  also 
in  the  Belgian  mystery  play  of  the  seven  joys  of  Mary 
(exhibited  at  Brussels  in  1444),  in  which  the  incident  of 
the  planting  of  the  branch  of  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  upon 
Adam's  grave,  in  order  that  one  day  the  healing  and  deliver- 
ing wood  of  the  cross  might  spring  forth  therefrom,  is  likewise 
brought  prominently  into  the  foreground. 

As  having  attained  to  the  true  maturity  of  artistic  comple- 
tion, and  being  freed  from  the  ineptitudes  and  incongruities 
attaching  to  it — especially  of  frequently  burlesque  additions 
and  tasteless  buffooneries,  —  and  moreover  as  developed 
on  the  technical  side  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  does  the 
Dramatic  Poetry  of  the  Cross  appear  only  at  a  period  consider- 
ably beyond  the  confines  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  Calderon 
(t  16S7),  the  Shakspere  of  the  spiritual  drama.  His  "  Sibyla 
del  Orient "  forms  the  most  richly  stored  collection  of  the 
various  legendary  elements  connected  with  this  subject,  for 
the  purpose  of  transforming  in  the  light  of  a  genuine  dra- 
matic art  the  one  whole  formed  out  of  them.  Disposing 
freely  and  with  genius  of  the  apocryphal  legendary  lore,  the 
poet  takes  as  the  central  point  of  action  a  point  somewhere 
between  Adam  and  Christ,  in  the  history  of  Solomon  and  of 
his  intercourse  with  the  "  Prophetess  of  the  East,"  the  Queen 
of  Sheba.  Thus,  looking  back  upon  Paradise  and  forward 
upon  Calvary,  is  developed  the  history  of  that  salutary 
wondrous  wood  which,  cedar,  palm,  and  cypress  at  once,  is 
recognised  and  adored  by  the  wise  prophetess  as  an  image  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  and  as  destined  one  day  to  be  the  instru- 
ment of  salvation  for  all  mankind  ;  which — because  it  will 
not  fit  in  into  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple — must  serve 
as  a  bridge  over  the  brook  Cedron,  but  even  there  too  is 
recognised  by  the  queenly  possessor  of  the  prophetic  spirit, 
and  now  inspires  her  to  make  her  glorious  prediction  with 
regard  to  the  erection  of  the  New  Testament  house  of  God, 
as  also  with  regard  to  Christ,  the  "youth  whose  diadem  is 

'  Birlinger  and   Crecelius,    Altdeutsche  N'eujahrsbldtier  fiir  1874,   Wiesbaden, 
1874.     Jubinal,  Mystcrcs  incdits  du  XV.  siide,  t.  ii.,  p.  16  sqq.     Freibe,  as  before. 


2  26  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

woven  out  of  reed  and  thorns,  and  in  place  of  leafless  roses 
is  adorned  with  drops  of  his  own  blood."  "  Marvel  not,"  she 
says  to  Solomon  with  regard  to  the  wondrous  triple  wood, 

' '  that  it  to-day  from  thy 
Proud  building  is  excluded, 
Since  for  a  higher  tennple's  use 
God  it  reserves  and  consecrates. 
O  already  it  seems  to  me,  I  see 
How  upon  its  neck  doth  cling 
Another  and  far  fairer  structure  ; 
For  life  informs  the  building."  ' 

In  several  others  also  of  the  mitos  or  religious  tragedies  of 
Calderon  does  the  legend  of  the  Cross  as  the  Tree  of  Life 
play  a  prominent  part :  so  in  the  "Dispute  of  the  Trees  about 
the  Kingship,"  in  "  Poison  and  Antidote,"  "  Life  a  Dream," 
and  "  Orpheus."  The  legendary  cycle,  too,  which  has  refer- 
ence to  the  fate  of  the  cross  at  the  time  of  Chosru  and 
Heraclius  has  received  an  independent  moulding  in  one  of 
his  dramas,  "The  Elevation  of  the  Cross."  And,  besides 
this,  he  has  added  in  the  "  Devotion  to  the  Cross"  an  entirely 
original  composition — as  to  its  material  absolutely  new,  or  at 
least  appearing  in  the  writings  of  no  poet  or  author  of  note. 
Calderon,  in  consequence  of  all  this,  became  the  true  hero 
of  the  dramatic  poetry  of  the  cross  :  he  occupies  the  same 
towering,  all-eclipsing  position  among  the  representatives  of 
this  poetic  genre,  as  Venantius  Fortunatus  among  the  lyric 
poets  of  the  cross.  It  is  true  some  of  his  pieces,  more 
especially  that  last  named,  are  pervaded  by  a  spirit  of  one- 
sided externalism  in  the  religious  devotion  to  the  Christian 
symbol  of  salvation — an  externalism  suggesting  to  the  mind 
the  fetichism  of  the  heathen — which  can,  as  such,  hardly  be 
any  longer  termed  Christian.  And  because  of  this  his  one- 
sidedness  and  of  his  errors,  in  which  to  a  certain  extent  and  in 
a  somewhat  different  manner  his  great  countryman  and  con- 
temporary Lope  also  participates,  shall  we  have  occasion  to 
return  to  him  once  more  in  the  study  of  the  post-Reforma- 
tion age.     Here  it  was  a  question,  in  the  first  place,  only  of 

'  From    the    German  translation   of    Calderon   by  v.   d.   Malsburg.       Comp. 
Carriere,  /.  c,  iv.  429  f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  22/ 

rendering  justice  to  his  historic  position,  as  forming  the 
crowning  close  of  the  poetry  of  the  cross-legends  as  this  de- 
veloped itself  from  the  early  Middle  Ages,  and  more  particu- 
larly as  regards  its  assumption  of  the  dramatic  form.  It  was 
a  question  of  rendering  apparent  the  fact  that  in  this  domain 
of  art  too,  as  in  all  the  others — that  of  music  alone  excepted, 
which  does  not  within  the  space  here  under  contemplation 
attain  to  any  very  high  stage  of  development — the  idea  of 
the  cross  has  called  forth  a  considerable  number  of  original 
creations,  and  even  that  it  has  very  essentially  contributed 
immediately  to  the  production  and  bringing  to  maturity  of  the 
highest  results  which  the  Christian  art  of  the  Middle  Ages 
has  been  able  in  any  province  to  achieve,  whether  in  those 
provinces  before  under  review  or  in  that  we  have  just  con- 
templated. 


D.    THE  AFTER-EXPERIENCE  OF  THE  PAINS  OF  THE  CROSS 
IN  ASCETICISM. 

All  the  confessing  and  glorifying  of  the  Christian  symbol 
of  salvation  which  has  hitherto  passed  under  notice  starts 
primarily  and  essentially  from  the  presupposition  of  the 
honour  due  to  the  same  as  a  triumphant  and  widely  prevail- 
ing power.  It  is  the  gloria  criicis,  to  which  we  see  rendered 
— sometimes  with  regard  to  the  outward  exertion  of  power 
proceeding  from  it,  sometimes  more  with  reference  to  the 
radiance  streaming  from  it,  and  transforming  the  realm  of 
the  Church's  devotional  acts  as  of  her  artistic  creations — 
the  tribute  of  enthusiastic  homage  on  the  part  of  Christen- 
dom. But  beside  this  gloria  criicis,  the  dolor  or  tristitia  criicis 
is  not  forgotten  ;  only  that,  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  a  sensuous  experience,  proving,  or  after-sensation 
of  the  very  pains  of  the  crucified  Redeemer,  rather  than  an 
inner  and  spiritual  conception  of  them,  is  aimed  at.  It  is 
not  so  much  a  lively  presentation  of,  or  sympathetic  entering 
into,  this  suffering,  as  it  is  A  DIRECT  reproduction  of  the 
SAME  IN  one's  own  BODY,  which  is  sought  by  the  ascetics 


228  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  the  Middle  Ages  with  regard  to  the  sufifering  of  the  Saviour 
on  the  cross.  It  is  a  comparatively  rare  thing  for  the  authors 
of  the  monastic  rules,  the  preachers,  or  ascetic  writers,  to  rest 
content  with  enjoying  a  devout  and  profound  self-absorption 
in  the  mystery  of  redemption  by  the  method  of  silent  medi- 
tation or  contemplation, — to  which  category  belongs,  e.g:,  a 
silent  meditation  of  three  days  in  the  solitary  cell  upon  the 
sufferings  of  Christ,  prescribed  by  Gualbert  of  Vallombrosa 
to  those  newly  received  into  his  order  (a  sort  of  prelude  to 
the  "spiritual  exercises"  of  the  Jesuits);  in  like  manner  the 
saying  of  an  Albertus  Magnus,  that  half  an  hour  of  devout 
meditation  upon  the  sufferings  of  the  Lord  would  obtain 
more  merit  than  a  whole  year  of  penance !  ^  The  tendency 
truly  conformed  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  does  not,  in  the 
ascetic  domain,  content  itself  with  such  more  harmless  mode 
of  realising  the  nature  of  the  Passion  as  belongs  only  to  the 
sphere  of  inner  conception.  It  demands  a  more  palpable 
accomplishment  of  the  entering  into  the  communion  of  Christ's 
sufferings  ;  it  desires  to  see  His  wounds  and  sufferings  as 
much  as  possible  represented  even  externally  in  the  body  of 
the  devout  penitent. 

The  early  fathers  of  Christian  monasticism  in  the  East,  of 
the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries — Anthony,  Hilarion,  Macarius* 
etc. — as  yet  know  evidently  nothing  of  such  rushing  upon  a 
sensuous-external  conformity  to  the  body  of  Jesus'  sufferings, 
upon  a  grossly  literal  accomplishment  of  the  "  being  crucified 
with  Christ,"  or  of  the  stigmatism  (Gal.  ii.  20,  vi.  17).  We 
read  in  Palladius,  Rufifinus,  Theodoret,  Cassian,  and  other 
admirers  of  their  ascetic  deeds  of  heroism,  much  indeed 
about  their  fasting  and  watching,  their  living  without  shelter 
and  in  solitude,  their  self-mortification  by  means  of  wretched 
clothing,  continuance  in  burning  heat  or  severe  frost,  etc. ; 
but  of  such  violence  done  to  the  body  as  should  serve  to 
impress  upon  them  externally  the  stripes  and  wounds  of  the 
suffering  Redeemer  there  is  no  word.  Even  of  the  scourge 
there   is   made   at   first   only   a  judicial    executive    use,  for 

'    See  the  author's  Kritischc  CeschicJtte  der  Askcse,  S.  314  f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  2  29 

the  chastising  of  disobedient  subjects,  in  the  community  of 
these  Egyptian  or  Syrian  monastic  fathers.  Self-flagellation 
remains  entirely  foreign  to  the  Eastern  ascetic  practice  of  the 
first  six  to  seven  centuries.  The  alleged  proofs  advanced 
from  the  writings  of  Nilus,  a  disciple  of  Chrysostom  in  the 
fifth  century,  or  of  John  Climacus  (t  606),  for  its  occasional 
occurrence  at  that  early  period,  are  wanting  in  all  real 
demonstrative  force.^  Self-flagellation  is  an  invention  of 
western  ascetics,  a  product  of  the  Benedictine  order  in  its 
later  development,  intent  upon  increasing  the  severity  of  its 
strict  mode  of  life,  as  this  begins  only  in  what  is  properly  the 
dark  period  of  the  Middle  Ages,  about  the  year  1000.  It 
appears  developed  in  the  bosom  of  this  order  and  in  that  of 
the  Camaldulensian  order  about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century,  in  the  time  of  Peter  Damiano  and  Hildebrand,  to  a 
more  than  heroic  degree  of  perfection  in  the  systematic  mal- 
treatment of  one's  own  body ;  to  become  in  later  times  an 
exercise  legally  prescribed  or  at  least  recommended  for  the 
ascetic  praxis  of  the  greater  number  of  the  monastic  orders, 
generally  with  a  considerable  relaxing  of  that  unnatural 
excess  of  severity  represented  by  the  heroes  of  the  scourge 
of  the  time  of  Hildebrand. 

Even  earlier  than  the  rise  of  this  principal  form  of  self- 
mortification — which  comes  only  incidentally  under  notice 
in  connection  with  our  subject — another  form,  akin  to  this, 
had  been  greatly  practised  on  the  part  of  western  ascetics: 
a  form  in  which  the  tendency  to  the  real  and  immediate  repre- 
sentation in  the  sphere  of  the  bodily  life  comes  forth  with 
special  distinctness.  It  is  the  terrible  penance  of  self-cruci- 
fixion by  means  of  a  painfully  wounding  impression  of  the 
sign  of  the  cross  upon  the  back  or  other  parts  of  the  body,  or 
else  by  the  carrying  about  of  heavy  crosses  of  wood  or  metal, 
which  wound  the  person  by  means  of  sharp  nails,  etc.  We 
meet  with  this  for  the  first  time  in  the  case  of  Radegonde 
(t  587),  the  pious  widow  of  the  Prankish  king,  Vv^hose  ardently 
enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  cross  showed  itself  productive, 

'  Ibid.,  S.  38  f. 


2  30  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

not  only  in  the  sphere  of  art  and  poetry,  by  calling  forth 
creations  of  abiding  value — such  as  more  particularly  the 
glorious  hymns  of  Fortunatus — but  also  in  that  of  ascetic 
practice.  She  is  said  to  have  sought,  by  means  of  placing  a 
brazen  cross  heated  over  glowing  coals  upon  different  parts 
of  her  body,  in  one  of  her  meditations  upon  the  Passion,  im- 
mediately to  realise  to  herself  the  pain  of  the  Crucified.  The 
example  thereby  afforded  did  not,  it  is  true,  find  so  many 
imitators  as  the  acts  of  intrepidity  on  the  part  of  the  heroes  of 
the  scourge  before  referred  to ;  yet  the  history  of  monasticism 
and  of  the  saints  embraces  in  every  successive  century  some 
single  instances  of  a  like  practice  of  mortification.  So  that 
of  the  English  abbess,  the  princess  Editha,  contemporary  with 
Dunstan  in  the  tenth  century,  who  countless  times  scratched 
the  symbol  of  the  cross  upon  her  forehead  with  large  sharp 
nails  ;  that  of  the  Dominican  prior,  Volvandus  or  Volandus  of 
Strasburg  (t  after  1230),  who  in  the  same  manner  drew 
it  upon  his  breast ;  but  above  all  that  of  Suso,  the  most 
rapt  and  ardently  loving  of  all  the  mystics  of  the  preaching 
order  (t  1365),  who,  in  the  days  in  which  he  still  treated  his 
body  with  unsparing  severity,  was  not  content  with  graving, 
by  means  of  his  sharp  writing-style,  the  letters  I  H  S  upon 
his  breast,  near  to  the  heart,  but  was  wont  besides  to  hang 
a  wooden  cross  of  a  foot  in  length,  and  of  proportionate 
breadth,  transfixed  with  thirty  pointed  nails,  upon  his 
shoulders,  and  by  the  frequent  pressing  of  the  many  sharp 
points  (daily  twice  or  three  times,  sometimes  oftener)  into 
his  flesh,  to  "administer  discipline  to  himself" — an  exercise 
which  he  acknowledges  having  continued  during  a  period  of 
eight  years.^  Of  the  practice,  too,  of  carrying  heavy  wooden 
crosses,  which  one  occasionally  meets  with  in  ecclesiastical 
antiquity  as  a  more  harmless  custom  of  essentially  symbolical 
significance — e.g.,  among  those  Egyptian  hermits  whose 
coming  forth  with  such  burdens  upon  their  shoulders  was, 
according  to  Cassian,  only  ridiculed,  not  regarded  with  de- 

'  Further  details  in  the  history  above  cited,  S.  65  f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  23  I 

vout  admiration  ^ — does  the  impulse  of  sickly  or  half-crazed 
ascetics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  an  impulse  ever  fertile  in  the 
invention  of  new  tortures,  make  a  real  mortification  of  the 
body,  and  one  inflicting  pain,  even  to  the  forcing  of  blood. 
To  this  do  penitent  pilgrims  in  particular  not  seldom  submit 
themselves,  whether  in  consequence  of  a  penance  expressly 
enjoined  upon  them,  as  the  Bohemian  abbot  Bozethecus 
of  Sasowa  (about  1086),  or  voluntarily,  as  the  Byzantine 
Nicholas  Peregrinus  about  1090,  or  Raymond  Palmar ius,  of 
Piacenza  (t  1200).'"  Even  in  the  age  of  the  Reformation, 
it  is  said  that  Peter  of  Alcantara,  the  Franciscan  saint 
(t  1562),  bore  up  a  high  and  steep  mountain  an  excessively 
heavy  cross  formed  of  beams,  in  order  to  plant  the  same  at 
its  summit,  whereby  he  caused,  not  only  his  sweat,  but, 
through  the  wearing  of  a  rough  garment  of  Cilician  goat's 
hair  next  his  skin,  his  blood  too  to  trickle  down  in  streams. 
The  kindred  order  of  barefooted  Carmelites,  the  creation 
of  Theresa  and  John  of  the  Cross,  is  said  to  have  made 
the  dragging  about  of  such  heavy  crosses,  combined  also 
with  a  crowning  with  thorns  and  imposing  of  flagellations 
upon  oneself,  a  special  form  of  penance  for  its  members, 
and  to  have  characterised  the  act  (usually  performed  in 
the  refectory  of  the  monastery  in  presence  of  the  assembled 
occupants)  by  the  name  of  Ecce  Jicnno?  Without  making 
use  of  this  name,  but  in  reality  aiming  at  the  same  result, 
namely,  the  most  complete  and  all-sided  representation 
possible  of  Jesus  as  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  a  depicting  of  the 
Passion  in  a  terrible  living  form,  did  the  flagellants  also  pro- 
ceed— not  only  the  isolated  hermits,  in  accordance  with  the 
precepts  of  Romuald  and  Peter  Damiano,  but  also  those 
socially  united  in  the  great  pilgrimages  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries.     The  holding  up  of  the  hands  crosswise 

'  Cassian,  Collat.  Fei?:,  viii.  3. 

^  To  the  instances  mentioned  in  the  author's  Gesch.  dcr  Ask.,  S.  70,  add  that  of 
the  abbot  Bozethecus,  who,  at  the  command  of  the  bishop  of  Prague,  had  pre- 
pared for  him,  and  bore  on  his  shoulde'rs  to  Rome,  a  crucifix  as  broad  and  as  long 
as  himself.     Comp.  Mon.  Germ.  Ser.,  t.  ix.,  p.  149  sqq. 

*  Ccsch.  der  Askese,  as  above. 


2  32  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

during  repeated  intoning  of  the  penitential  psalms,  thus  the 
recitation  of  psalms  in  the  posture  of  a  cross  (after  the 
example  of  Moses,  Exod.  xvii.) ;  further,  recitation  of  psalms 
with  frequent  metanoeas  or  genuflexions,  z.^.,  prostrations  to 
the  ground  ;  finally,  psalm  recitations,  or  rather  psalter  recita- 
tions (the  singing  through,  and  indeed  the  repeated  singing 
through  of  the  whole  psalter),  accompanied  by  the  simultaneous 
infliction  upon  oneself  of  the  most  numerous  and  most  painful 
strokes  of  the  lash  :  these  three  forms  of  undergoing  penance, 
pursued  alternately  with  inexhaustible  zeal  and  astonishing 
endurance,  form  the  masterpieces  of  ascetic  dexterity  and 
valour  for  which  Dominicus  the  Mail-Clad  became  celebrated. 
The  crosswise  spreading  out  of  the  arms  in  connection  with 
a  penitential  smiting  of  the  breast ;  a  scourging  even  to  blood 
with  implements  of  torture  whose  cords  bore — crosswise 
driven  through  their  thick  end-knots — sharp  and  long  spikes  ; 
finally,  prostration  to  the  ground  with  arms  outspread  cross- 
wise, accompanied  with  the  singing  of  the  verse, 

"  Jhesus  der  wart  gelabt  niit  gallen, 
Des  sullen  wir  an  ein  criuze  vallen," 

form  moreover  the  characteristically  prominent  manipula- 
tions of  the  flagellant  hosts  of  the  time  of  pestilence  and 
famine,  1 349-1 350,  on  account  of  which  these  were  named 
"Cross-brethren"  or  "Cross-flagellants"  {Crucifraires,  Crnci- 
flagellatores).  This  sensuously  copying  representation  or 
imitation  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Crucified  One  is,  in  the  one 
case  as  in  the  other,  maintained  as  the  highest  standard  of 
conception  by  which  the  form  and  mode  of  performing 
penance  can  be  regulated  in  detail.  Here  too,  it  is  cus- 
toms originally  harmless,  essentially  only  of  figurative 
import,  and  entirely  unadapted  for  producing  acute  pain, 
much  less  the  laceration  of  the  body — like  the  above-men- 
tioned practice  of  standing  in  the  attitude  of  the  cross,  with 
outstretched  hands  in  penance  (the  stare  ad  cruccui),  or  that 
of  taking  one's  food  at  the  cross  by  way  of  punishment  (at 
the  pillory-cross  in  the  court  of  the  monastery,  the  comedere 
ad  cruccvi),  or  that  of  the  smiting  of  the  breast  crosswise,  as 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  233 

a  sign  of  violent  penitential  grief  (the  cross-formed  arepvoTv-rria, 
also  palmata  or  pectoris  tiinsid) — customs  occurring  only  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  development  of  the  western  monastic 
discipline,  from  which  those  more  violent  and  excentric  forms 
of  the  sensuous  imitation  and  representation  of  the  pain  of 
the  Redeemer  on  the  cross  have  gradually  been  developed/ 

The  passionate  endeavour  after  a  sensuous  conformity  to 
the  Redeemer's  body  of  crucifixion  appears  as  having 
attained  to  the  form  of  most  acute  disease,  although  of  a 
disease  by  no  means  transitory,  but  rather  continuing  as  an 
epidemic  for  more  than  six  centuries  in  several  communities 
of  the  Romish  Church,  in  the  five  wounds  of  St.  Francis 
and  the  members  of  his  order  who  emulated  him,  as  also  of 
the  Dominicans  and  other  monastic  societies.  Stigmatisa- 
TION,  the  most  systematic  and  favourite  form  of  sensuous 
imitation  of  the  passion  of  Christ,  sprung  from  a  stupidly 
literal  apprehension  of  Gal.  vi.  17,  and  consisting  of  the 
production  of  four  bleeding  prints  of  the  nails  upon  the  hands 
and  feet  as  well  as  a  still  greater  wound  in  the  side  of  the 
ascetic,  is  regarded  either  as  a  supranaturally  wrought  fruit  and 
consequence  of  the  ascetic  endeavour,  or  as  a  special  element 
in  this  endeavour  itself,  i.e.,  as  a  spontaneous  result  or  natural 
effect  of  the  effort  after  more  perfect  conformity  to  the  body 
of  Christ's  sufferings.  In  the  former  case  it  is  looked  at  in 
the  light  of  a  miraculous  reward  of  grace,  with  which  the 
Saviour  crowns  the  constant  longing  for  perfect  conformity 
to  the  effects  of  His  passion,  as  a  charisma  similar  to  those 
raptures  or  ecstatic  conditions  of  another  kind  frequently 
related  in  the  legendary  history  of  the  saints,  namely,  visions, 
miraculous  experiences  of  hearing,  taste,  or  smell,  mystic 
exaltations,  floatings  in  the  air,  phenomena  of  flying,  etc.;  or 
even  akin  to  the  grace  of  tears,  this  effect  of  continued 
penitent  contemplation  of  the  blessed  mystery  of  Christ's 
wounds,  already  playing  an  important  part  in  the  life  of  the 
early  monastic  patriarchs  of  the  East."     To  this  view  of  the 

'  Gesch.  der  Ask.,  S.  51  ff.,  67  ff.,  261  ff. 

'^  Ibid.,  S.  354  ff.     Comp.  W.  Preger,  Gcschichte  der  deittschen  Mystik  im  Mittel- 
alta;  i.  ,5-5  ff.,  60  ff. 


2  34  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

phenomenon  as  a  charisma,  exclusively  reckoned  orthodox  in 
the  Romish  Church,  the  Protestant  theory  which  would  explain 
it  from  natural  causes,  and  would  thus  relegate  it  to  the  pro- 
vince of  the  ascetic  action  itself,  is  in  irreconcilable  antagonism 
only  when  it  asserts  a  violent  infliction  of  the  wounds  by  the 
hand  of  the  ascetic  himself,  thus — as  again  not  long  ago  by 
Virchow  in  his  discussion  of  the  case  of  Louisa  Lateau — 
presupposes  a  deliberate  act  of  fraud,  whether  on  the  part  of 
the  stigmatised  person  himself  or  on  that  of  the  directing  and 
controlling  spiritual  advisers  or  friends.^  This  rationalistic,  or 
rather  materialistic,  explaining  away  even  of  the  last  remains 
of  a  supernatural  character  belonging  to  this  phenomenon 
has  it  is  true  an  important  point  of  support  in  the  fact  of 
frequent  unmaskings  of  alleged  cases  of  stigmatisation  as  the 
acts  of  hypocritical  impostors, — a  circumstance  of  so  much 
the  greater  import  from  the  fact  that  such  cases  of  pseudo- 
stigmatisation  or  of  impositions  of  a  like  kind  are  equally 
ancient,  and  some  of  them  even  more  ancient,  than  the 
fact  belonging  to  the  last  years  of  St.  Francis,  typically 
prescriptive  and  preparatory  to  those  stigmatisations  alleged 
to  be  genuine.  Already  two  generations  before  this  fact 
Archbishop  Eustathius  of  Thessalonica  (f  1194),  in  accord- 
ance with  his  sober  and  almost  evangelical  reformational  zeal 
against  the  senseless  ascetic  extravagances  of  the  monks  of 
Mount  Athos  in  his  time,  censures  too  the  hypocritical 
juggling  of  the  same  after  the  fashion  of  dervishes  or  fakeers, 
e.g.,  the  scratching  of  themselves  with  knives,  nails,  or  files, 
smearing  of  the  body  (on  the  edge  of  the  coat  of  mail,  rings 
or  chains  surrounding  it)  with  blood,  and  other  similar 
abuses.'^  A  stigmatisation,  strictly  so  termed,  after  the 
manner  of  that  of  St.  Francis,  is  said  to  have  been  feigned 
by  a  nun  at  Zell  near  Constance,  about  the  time  of  the  open- 
ing of  the  Council  of  Constance ;  ^  whilst  a  century  later  the 

*  Virchow,  Uebo-  Wunder  (address  at  the  Breslau  assembly  of  Natural  Philoso- 
phers, Sept.  1874),  S.  II. 

^  Observations  of  Eustathius  of  Thessalonica  on  the  Monastic  Estate.     From  the 
Greek  (into  German)  by  G.  L.  F.  Tafel  (Berlin,  1847),  S.  30  f. 

*  [Assembled  Nov.  i,  1414.] 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  235 

Dominicans  at  Bern  sought  by  means  of  deception,  and  at 
the  same  time  with  the  employment  of  violence,  to  make  a 
stigmatised  person  of  a  poor  imbecile  tailor.  At  a  yet  later 
period  there  arise,  sometimes  among  the  Jesuits,  sometimes 
among  the  Carmelites,  sometimes  among  the  members  of 
other  orders,  similar  instances  of  a  cruel  use  made  of  infatu- 
ated penitents  as  the  victims  of  a  pretendedly  miraculous 
marking  with  the  five  stigmas.  As  regards  the  means  too 
employed  in  connection  with  such  acts  of  deception,  history 
furnishes  many  particulars.  Of  stigmatisations  "  with  the 
rouge-box,"  the  noble  Spanish  mystic  Luis  de  Leon  (t  1590 
has  to  tell  us,  as  a  form  of  hypocrisy  practised  by  monks 
and  nuns  in  his  day.  The  demoniacal  nun  Eustochio,  at 
Padua,  is  said  to  have  employed  needles  for  the  piercing  of 
her  hands  and  feet,  and  a  sword  for  causing  the  wound  in 
her  side.  A  little  bottle  filled  with  blood,  kept  concealed  in 
the  bed,  formed  for  the  pseudo-stigmatised  Angela  Hupe, 
of  Boke  in  Westphalia,  who  was  afterwards  detected,  the 
means  of  effecting  the  bleedings  in  her  hands  and  feet, 
given  out  as  miraculous,  etc.^  Nevertheless  an  attempt  at 
tracing  back  all  the  cases  of  stigmatisation  occurring  in  the 
history  of  the  monks  and  saints,  from  eighty  to  a  hundred 
in  number,  from  the  time  of  St.  Francis  (t  1226),  to  a 
grosser  or  more  refined  form  of  deception  of  the  charac- 
teristic nature  above  instanced,  can  hardly  prove  successful. 
Chloride  of  iron  and  supho-cyanide  of  potassium — the 
means  lately  recommended  by  a  Swiss  professor  of  chemistry 
as  specially  adapted  for  producing  intense  "bleedings  or 
blood -sweating  "  on  any  part  of  the  body  at  pleasure — could 
hardly  have  been  known  or  accessible  to  a  single  one  of 
those  bearers  of  the  stigmas  who  are  still  living,  amount- 
ing according  to  the  statements  of  chaplain  P.  Majunke  to 
the  number  of  at  least  eight  or  ten.^      With  regard  to  the 

*  See  the  author's  paper  "Louise  Lateau,  die  belgische  Stigmatisirte,"  in  the 
Bewds  dcs  Glauhens,  1875,  S.  8,  and  the  proofs  there  given. 

-  Majunke  ("Louise  Lateau,  ilir  Wunderleben,"  etc.  Berlin,  1874,  S.  102  ff.) 
mentions,  after  the  enumeration  of  a  greater  number  of  other  female  bearers  of 
the  stigmas  during  the  nineteenth  century  (who  are  now  dead),  as  perhaps  still 


236  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

numerous  representatives  of  this  strange  phenomenon  who 
lived  at  the  time  when  alchemy  was  still  flourishing,  or 
even  earlier,  the  suspicion  of  the  application  of  such  modern 
chemical  products  is  of  course  inadmissible.  But,  apart  from 
this,  the  personal  character  of  a  Francis,  a  Katerina  of 
Siena,  a  Coleta,  a  Lidvvina,  a  Mary  of  Mori,  and  generally  of 
most  of  the  persons  adduced  as  cases  in  point,  absolutely 
precludes  the  supposition  of  a  gross  fraud,  such  as  a  scratch- 
ing or  tearing  open  of  the  wounds  repeated  in  cold  blood 
every  Friday.  A  violent  producing  of  the  wounds  on  the 
part  of  the  stigmatised  person  might  in  itself  and  at  their  first 
appearing,  in  a  moment  of  sacred  frenzy  or  in  the  blissful 
agony  of  a  transport  superinduced  by  an  excess  of  the 
intensive  contemplation  of  the  passion,  perhaps  not  be 
irreconcilable  with  the  religious-ethical  character  of  these 
persons.  But  never  can  the  charge  of  deliberately  applying 
artificial  means  for  effecting  the  constant  maintenance  or 
regular  periodical  recurrence  of  the  bleeding  of  their  stigmatic 
wounds  be  brought  home  against  them.  This  constant  or 
periodical  recurrence  of  the  bleeding  or  smarting  of  their 
wound-prints,  especially  on  a  Friday,  related  as  characteristic 
with  regard  to  the  majority  of  those  thus  stigmatised, 
demands  some  other  explanation  than  that  offered  by  the 
supposition  of  a  direct  and  systematically  practised  self- 
infliction.  And  in  reality  all  that  is  reported  with  regard 
to  the  most  important  symptoms  in  the  different  bearers  of 
these  marks  accords  at  least  equally  well,  if  not  far  better, 
with  the  psychico-pathological  explanation  which  at  once  and 
most  naturally  presents  itself — an  explanation  which  sees  in 
the  phenomenon  a  diseased  condition  of  body  superinduced 

living  (?},  Crescentia  Nierklutsch  in  the  Tyrol,  and  Dorothea  Visser  at  Gendringen  m 
Holland  ;  farther,  as  certainly  still  living,  Palma  of  Oria  in  Naples,  Helena  of 
Bolavatta  in  India,  Vitaline  Gagnon  in  Canada ;  to  which  he  adds  the  names  of 
three  others,  less  known  (at  Bordeaux,  at  Grenoble,  and  at  San  Francisco).  To 
these  would  the  case  of  the  Bohemian  Franziska  Pschera  at  Scheibenradisch, 
lately  published  in  the  Austrian  papers,  naturally  form  an  addition.  On  the  other 
hand,  Dorothea  Visser  is  spoken  of  by  Majunke  himself  in  the  second  edn.  of  his 
work  (S.  117)  as  not  really  presenting  a  genuine  case  of  stigmatisation,  while 
doubts  are  expressed  by  him  also  with  regard  to  Palma  of  Oria. 


IN    THE   CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  237 

by  an  extraordinary  excitement  of  the  emotions  of  the  soul, 
and  manifesting  itself  also  in  unwonted  corporeal  phenomena 
— than    with    that    downright    materialistic    explanation,    by 
virtue  of  which  every  case  of  stigmatisation  would  properly 
belong   in  the  first  place   to  the   annals  of  a  police  court. 
The    specially  frequent    occurrence    of  the    phenomenon    in 
connection  with  persons  of  the  female  sex,  to  which  sex  at 
least  five-sixths  of  the  stigmatised  persons  known  to  history 
belong,   eminently   favours    the   pyschico-pathological   mode 
of  explanation.     Whether  then  we  accept  as  the  main  ground 
of  our  explanation  the  supposition  of  suppressed    monthly 
purifications  or  some  other  hysteric  conditions,  or  start  from 
the  general  fact  that  in  women  the  susceptibility  for  religious 
excitement  and   the   warmth  of  emotions   and  affections  is 
markedly  present,  at   any  rate   all  that  can  be  in  any  way 
referred    to  this  category  harmonises  remarkably  well  with 
the   supposition  in   question,  while   the  rigidly  materialistic 
explanation  is,  in  presence  of  the   fact  of  the  so  frequent 
occurrence  of  the  phenomenon  in  the  case  of  women,   and 
those   as   a    rule    exceedingly   weak    and    delicate   women, 
involved   in   contradictions   of    every   kind.      Nor   does   the 
circumstance  that  this  phenomenon  was  unquestionably,  at 
least  up  to  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  almost  entirely, 
confined  to  members  of  one  or  other  of  the  two  rival  mendi- 
cant orders,  either  the  Franciscan  or  the  Dominican,  by  any 
means   necessitate   the   assumption    of  gross   acts    of  fraud, 
originating  in  the  desire  of  advancing  per  fas  et  nefas  the 
interests  of  one's  own  order;   but,  on  the  contrary,  equally 
as  the  phenomenon  itself,  is  accounted  for  in  a  manner  pre- 
eminently satisfactory,  by  the  ps}xhological  mode  of  expla- 
nation.    In  like  manner  does  the  regular  recurrence  of  the 
bleeding  of  the   stigmas,  at  the  times  specially  consecrated 
to  the  devout  contemplation  of  the  Lord's  passion,  find  in 
this  mode  of  regarding  the  phenomenon  its  fittest  means  of 
explanation.     Ardent  meditations  on  the  passion,   repeated 
every  Friday, — accompanied  perhaps  for  a  considerable  time 
by  such  violent  mortifications  or  "  disciplines  "  as  those  under- 


238  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

taken  by  Radegonde  with  her  burning  cross  of  metal,  or  by 
Suso  with  his  nail-covered  cross  of  wood,  or  by  St.  Brigitta 
and  similarly  by  De  Guyon  with  melted  wax  dropping  down 
upon  the  bare  skin/ — may  as  a  rule  have  formed  the  pre- 
liminary step  to  the  physico-somatic  affections,  of  which  the 
perfect  outcome  finally  manifested  itself  in  the  permanently 
sickly  condition  of  the  stigmas — a  condition  of  disease  which, 
especially  as  respects  its  peculiar  periodical  manifestations 
of  bleedings  (those  continuing  without  interruption  are  much 
more  rare),  is,  so  far  as  these  present  themselves  in  the  expe- 
rience of  women,  one  specially  admitting,  yea  almost  im- 
peratively demanding,  the  calling  to  our  aid  of  the  hypothesis 
of  an  abnormal  hysteric  condition,  brought  about  by  the 
progress  and  tendency  of  the  religiously  excited  psychical 
life. — What  at  any  rate  further  tends  to  recommend  this 
mode  of  solution,  which,  however  modified  in  its  application 
to  particular  instances,  in  every  case  places  the  central  point 
of  the  whole  enigmatical  phenomenon  in  the  intensified 
psychical  functions,  especially,  in  the  plastically  formative 
power  of  the  imagination,  is  the  fact  that,  apart  from  the 
judgment  of  so  many  critics  of  the  different  Protestant  con- 
fessions in  later  and  most  recent  times,  it  is  also  substantially 
advocated  by  a  considerable  number  of  unprejudiced  Catholic 
inquirers.  Thus,  not  only  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Jacobus 
de  Voragine,  the  author  of  the  "Golden  Legend"  (f  1298),  as  in 
the  following  century  Petrarch,  farther  on  Peter  Pomponatius, 
Agrippa  of  Nettesheim,  and  others,  have  favoured  this  hypo- 
thesis of  the  imagination  either  with  more  immediate  reference 
to  the  stigmas  of  St.  Francis  alone,  or  in  its  wider  appli- 
cation, but  also  among  Catholics  in  more  recent  times  it  has 
received  the  adhesion,  e.g.,  of  Fehr,  Mahler,  Alf.  Maury,  Perty, 
Warlomont.^ 

•  On  the  two  latter  see  the  author's  Gesch.  dcr  Askcse,  S.  20. 

^  The  proofs  m  Gesch.  der  Ask.,  S.  361  f. — The  last  named  of  the  above  autho- 
rities, Dr.  Warlomont  of  Bmssels,  makes  use  in  his  Rapport  medical,  issued  at  the 
request  of  the  Brussels  Medical  Academy,  on  the  case  of  L.  Lateau  (Brux.,  1875). 
of  the  expression  "  nevropathie  stigmatique  "  as  a  designation  characteristic  of  the 
sickly  phenomenon  in  question. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  239 

A  more  thorough  examination  of  this  remarkable  pheno- 
menon, concerning  which  we  have  expressed  ourselves  more 
fully  elsewhere/  does  not  enter  into  our  plan.  Only  as  the 
point  of  culmination  and  systematic  outcome  of  the  sensuous 
asceticism  of  the  cross  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  its  develop- 
ment increasing  in  intensity  from  century  to  century,  must 
the  condition  of  stigmatisation  be  here  taken  into  account, 
and  must  again  be  briefly  returned  to,  in  common  with  some 
nearly  related  phenomena  of  kindred  origin,  in  our  con- 
sideration of  the  post-Reformation  epoch.  What  our  decision 
must  be  as  to  the  religious  value  of  the  phenomenon,  is 
apparent  from  the  remarks  we  have  already  made,  to  which 
we  add  only  the  excellent  observation  of  that  admirable 
theosophist  J.  Fr.  von  Meyer,  in  his  brilliant  and  profound 
dissertation  on  "the  Cross  of  Christ."^  "There  have  been 
men,  even  down  to  recent  times,  who  had  so  firmly  impressed 
upon  themselves  the  image  of  the  Crucified,  that  they  have 
received  the  wish  and  the  gift  of  experiencing  something  of 
the  wound  marks  of  the  Lord  in  their  body.  Even  though 
this  had  not  been  demonstrated  by  facts,  we  should  regard 
it  as  possible  by  means  of  a  lively  faith,  to  which  through  the 
enkindling  of  the  imagination  all  things  are  possible.  Nor  do 
we  wish  to  censure  this  childHke  pious  desire.  But  it  is  a 
greater  grace  to  experience  spiritually  and  in  reality,  that  ivJiich 
Christ  endured  for  21s  bodily  in  tJie  flesh.  That  miracle  of  the 
senses  is  in  itself  transitory ;  but  the  spiritual  miracle  of 
inner  union  and  renewal  is  eternal  and  abiding :  the  suffering 
of  the  Lord  is  here  too  presented  to  us  in  a  copy." 


E.      THE    SOUNDING    OF    THE    DEPTHS    OF    THE    CROSS    IN 
THEOLOGY,  ESPECIALLY  IN  THE  MYSTICAL  THEOLOGY. 

"  Bodily  exercise  profiteth  little  ;  but  godliness  is  profit- 
able unto  all  things,  having  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is, 

*    Comp.   the   author's  dissertation,    "  Ueber  wahre  unci   falsche   Askese,"   in 
Vilmar's /fej/.-^/i^o/.  Blatter,  ii.,  S.  77—88. 

^  Blatter  f.  hoh.  Wahrheit,  Bd.  ii.,  S.  444  (of  the  si^jaller  collection). 


240  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

and  of  that  which  is  to  come."     "  Though  I  bestow  all  my 
goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  though  I   give  my  body  to  be 
burned,  and  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me  nothing."^     The 
worthlessness  of  sensuous  ascetic  performances  of  the  nature 
of  those  contemplated,  as  seen  from  these  and  similar  utter- 
ances of  Holy  Scripture,  compared  with  a  true  and  spiritual 
following   of  the   Crucified    and   Risen    One,   by  no   means 
remained    a    thing   wholly   unknown    to    the    Church    and 
Theology  of  the  Middle  Ages.     Warnings  against  the  perils 
of  a  spurious  humility  and  self-chosen  spirituality  of  angels, 
arising  from  the  unsparing  treatment  of  the  body,  yea,  of 
a  being  puffed  up  in  the  fleshly  mind,  resound  through  all 
the  stages  and  stadia  of  its  literature.     Of  the  fact,  too,  that 
neither  the  Lord  in  speaking  of  the  taking  up  of  His  cross, 
nor  Paul,  by  "the  bearing  about  in  the  body  the  dying  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,"  or  "the  mortifying  of  the  members  which  are 
upon  the  earth,"  or  by  "the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus,"  or  by 
the  "keeping  under  his  body  and  bringing  it  into  subjection,"*'* 
etc.,  has  any  reference  to  a  bodily  and  external  following  of 
the  sufferings  of  Christ,  is  widely  acknowledged  in  a  confes- 
sion true  at  the  core.    The  purer  spiritual  apprehension  of  the 
idea  of  the  following  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  in  accordance  with 
the  teaching  of  the  Gospel,  thus  appears  as  not  having  died 
out :    it  appears  nevertheless,  it  is  true,  almost   everywhere 
most  strongly  alloyed   with  sensuous-ascetic  principles  and 
doctrines.     The  theological  representatives  and  advocates  of 
the  prevalent  views  of  the  religious  morals  seek  as  a  rule  to 
recommend  both  at  the  same  time  as  valuable,  and  even  as 
necessary :  the  literal  and  the  typical  and  ideal,  the  sensuous 
and  the  spiritual  apprehension  and  carrying  into  effect  of  the 
Divine  injunctions  which  have  reference  to  the  crucifying  of 
the  flesh  and  the  mortifying  of  the  old  Adam.    As  prominently 
influential  teachers  and  ethical  lawgivers  in  the  domains  in 
question  do  the  representatives  of  the  Mystical  theology  more 
especially  appear,  alike  in  its  more  learned  form  as  near  akin 

'   I  Tim.  iv.  8  ;   I  Cor.  xiii.  3. 

''■  2  Cor.  iv.  10 ;  Col.  iii,  5  ;  Gal.  vi.  17;  i  Cor.  ix,  27. 


IN    THE   CHURCH    OF    THE    Mn)DLE    AGES.  24 1 

to  Scholasticism,   as  this   developes   itself  more  particularly 
in  the  Romance  lands  of  south-west  Europe,  as  in  its  more 
popular    form,   as    this    attains    to    its    particularly  vigorous 
growth  on  German  soil.     But  then  they  are  able  least  of  all 
to  deny  the  principles  of  the  abstract  ignoring  and  contemn- 
ing of  the  rights  of  the  bodily  factor  in  the  sphere  of  the 
Christian    moral   life — principles   derived   from   their  highly 
esteemed  and   much-admired  codex  of  legislation,  the    col- 
lection of  the  writings  of  pseudo-Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  a 
codex  actually  invested  with  almost  the  authority  of  revelation. 
Even  in  their  sermons  and  writings  they  speak  most  empha- 
tically in   commendation  of  a  one-sided  restraint  upon  the 
lawful    emotions   of  the   sensuous   nature  :    approving,    yea 
admiring,  judgments  upon  the  most  unnatural  and  extrava- 
gant   acts    of   violence    done   in    ascetic    self-discipline,    and 
frequently  at  the  same  time  also   upon  the  most  external 
and  morally  v/orthless  forms  of  creature-idolising  superstition 
or  a  mechanically  legal  service  of  works,   go  in  their  case 
strangely  hand  in  hand  with  evangelically  genial  dissuasives 
from  such  excesses,  as  well  as  often  with  surprisingly  temper- 
ate and  intelligent  representations  of  the  real  nature  of  the 
following  of  Christ  in  its  essentially  spiritual  character.     This 
unnatural  juxtaposition  of  purer  evangelical  knowledge  and  a 
sickly  legal  or  even  hyper-ascetic  spirit  of  zeal  characterises 
the  utterances  of  the  theology  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  general, 
alike  of  the  mystical  as  of  that  not  mystic  in  the  narrower 
sense,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  our  subject.     The  great  extent 
to   which   even   the   less   strictly   mystical    theology   too   is 
influenced  by  the  fundamental  conceptions  and  principles  of 
Mysticism  is  as  a  rule  very  clearly  marked  just  where  it  is  a 
question  of  estimating  the  value  of  ascetic  endeavours  and 
modes  of  conduct ;  so  that  a  sharp  line  of  separation  between 
mystics  and  non-mystics  appears  here  in  general  to  be  hardly 
possible,  and  very  many  a  scholastic  or  practical  churchly 
theologian  will  consequently  have  to  be  ranged  under  the 
point   of  view   of  a  representative  of  mystic  ideas    in  the 
wider  sense  of  the  term. — Thus  we  shall  meet  with  a  long 

16 


242  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

succession  of  witnesses  by  their  lives  in  the  Church,  from  the 
Fathers  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  down  to  the  imme- 
diate precursors  of  the  Reformation  Age,  in  whom  an  external 
homage  rendered  to  the  cross  or  a  grossly  sensuous  asceticism 
of  the  cross  is  found  to  co-exist,  without  being  brought  into 
any  real  harmony,  with  a  deeper  apprehension  of  the  idea 
involved  in  the  Christian  symbol  of  salvation.  The  recog- 
nition of  the  infinitely  higher  importance  of  the  spiritual 
following  of  the  cross  above  the  merely  external  will  indeed 
meet  us  here  and  there  ;  but  neither  special  clearness  and 
consistency  in  the  theoretical  or  practical  turning  to  account 
of  this  knowledge,  nor  the  going  forth  of  an  influence  to  any 
extent  far-reaching  and  continuous  from  it  to  the  Christian 
ethic  life  of  society,  will  be  at  all  perceptible  within  the  limits 
of  the  pre-Reformation  Age. 

Among  the  CllURCH  FATHERS  of  the  period  from  the 
fourth  century  to  the  eighth,  or  of  the  time  from  Eusebius 
and  Lactantius  down  to  John  of  Damascus  and  Alcuin,  those 
of  the  East  dwell  with  special  interest  and  fulness  upon  the 
external  dominion  and  glory  of  the  once  abhorred  and  lightly 
esteemed  symbol  of  the  cross,  of  which  they  are  never  weary 
of  celebrating  the  triumph,  and  turning  to  account  this  triumph 
in  apologetical  or  polemical  interest,  in  opposition  to  the 
enemies  of  the  faith.  With  Chrysostom,  the  most  ardent 
panegyrist  of  the  cross,  and  the  one  of  loftiest  flight,^  vies  in 
this  respect  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  who  in  his  thirteenth  CatecJicsis 
more  especially,  in  meditating  upon  the  words  of  the  creed, 
"  Crucified  (dead),  buried,"  displays  a  sublime  enthusiasm  in 
his  laudation  of  the  cross  as  the  mighty  bulwark  of  grace  for 
the  poor  and  lowly,  the  weak  and  sick,  the  symbol  of  victory 
for  believers,  and  the  terror  of  evil  spirits."     Athanasius,  too, 

'  Comp.  above,  p.  152  ;  as,  besides  the  principal  passage  there  given  from  the 
Serin,  contra  Jjtd.  et  Gentiles  qitod  Christ,  sit  Dens,  especially  the  X\\o  discourses 
De  criice  et  latrone  (0pp.,  t.  ii.,  p.  403  sqq. ,  411  sqq.),  and  the  preceding,  De 
ccemeterio  et  eriice  (p.  397  sqq.)  The  Serin,  in  venerab.  et  vivificaiit  erncein  is 
notoriously  spurious ;  cp.  below. 

*  Crt/tr//.  xiii.,  sub  fin. ;  comp.  also  the  similar  although  shorter  disquisitions  in 
Cat.  iv. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  243 

comes  under  this  head,  in  whose  writings  there  frequently 
occurs,  inter  alia,  that  which  was  also  a  favourite  idea  of 
Chrysostom,  namely,  that  the  exaltation  of  Christ  on  the  cross 
served  for  the  purifying  and  sanctifying  consecration  of  the 
region  of  the  air,  this  scene  of  action  of  the  demons  (Ephes. 
ii.  2  ;  Luke  x.  18),  who  however  also  advances  much  that  is 
more  profound  and  of  greater  ethical  importance  in  his  medi- 
tations on  this  subject ;  thus  the  beautiful  thought  that  the 
dying  Saviour  on  the  cross  presented  in  and  with  His  Spirit, 
to  the  heavenly  Father,  as  His  members,  the  whole  number  of 
those  children  of  men  made  alive  in  Him/  Further,  the  two 
Gregories,  Basil  the  Great,  Cyril  of  Alexandria  (in  his  defence 
of  Christianity  against  the  assaults  of  Julian),  Ephraem, 
and  the  later  Syrians,  as  Isaac  of  Antioch  and  Cyrillonas,  of 
whose  excessive  laudation  of  the  cross  in  their  poetic  dis- 
courses we  have  already  spoken  above.  All  the  encomiums 
conceived  and  circulated  by  these  earlier  writers  are  compre- 
hended in  one,  and  almost  outdone  by  the  luxuriant  turgidity 
of  the  typologies,  the  play  on  symbolic  numbers,  and  the 
rhetorical  flourishes  of  Anastasius  the  Sinaite,  in  several  of 
his  works  composed  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century, 
especially  the  "  Anagogic  Contemplations  on  the  Six  Days' 
Work." "  More  sober,  and  more  of  a  nature  to  remind  of 
Chrysostom,  Athanasius,  and  the  three  Cappadocians,'  is  that 
which  is  advanced  by  John  Damascenus  in  praise  of  the 
glorious  symbol  of  redemption,  as  also  in  justification  of  the 
adoration  presented  to  it  in  the  orthodox  Church.^ — Occasional 
beautiful  appeals  from  the  outward  form  to  the  inner  reality, 

'  De  Incarnatione  Dei  Verb,  ct  contr.  Arianos :  comp.  the  similar  passages  in 
Chrysost.,  De  criice  et  latr.,  i.  and  ii.  The  apologetic  import  of  the  cross  of  Christ, 
as  a  power  triumphant  over  all  hostile  efforts  of  demons,  as  in  the  world  of  men, 
is  several  times  insisted  on  by  Athanasius,  in  a  manner  entirely  similar  to  that  in 
which  it  was  afterwards  by  Chrysostom,  e.g.,  My.  Kad'  "EXXT^vas,  c.  I. 

-  Anogogic.  contemplatt.  in  Hexaemeron,  lib.  xii.  (in  the  Bt'i/.  max.  Ltigd., 
t.  ix.,  f.  871  sqq. ).  As  also  his  "05??76s  j'oi^s  (Via;  dux,  ?(^/(/.,  p.  817  sqq.);  his 
AtdXe^ts  /card  'Ioi/5at'wj',  /c.t.X. 

*  Basil  of  Coesarea,  f  379,  his  brother  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  f  abt.  396,  and  his 
friend  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  f  389. 

^  Dc  fiJe  ortJiod.,  iv.  c.  12,  p.  265  sq. 


244  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

from  the  rhetorical  apologetic  to  the  deeper  ethical  bearing  of 
the  homage  rendered  to  the  cross,  are  to  be  met  with  in  all 
these  Fathers.     They  almost  all  warn  against  forgetting,  in 
the  imposing  exterior  of  the  emblem,  its  serious  and  profound 
significance — in   the   cross,  the  Saviour  Himself  who  hung 
thereon.     They  warn  against  ever  approaching  Him  who  was 
nailed  to  the  cross,  the  holy  sacrificial  Lamb  of  God,  adored 
and  glorified  by  the  angels  of  heaven,  in  any  other  manner 
than  with  fear  and  trembling,  in  sacred  awe  and  reverence. 
They  insist  on  an  inner  purification  of  heart  through  the  power 
of  the  cross :  "  If  the  inner  man  is  full  of  evil  thoughts,  one 
may  be  on  Calvary,  or  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  or  at  the 
monument  of  the  Resurrection,  and  yet  be  far  removed  from 
receiving  Christ  into  the  heart,  as  far  as  though  one  had  never 
professed  His  name."  ^     Even  in  the  rankly  fanciful  panegy- 
rics of  those   Syrians  one  meets  here  and  there  with  more 
refreshing  portions,  which  prove  that  a  more  earnest,  evan- 
gelically pure  and  sober  devotion  to  the  Crucified  was  not 
unknown    to   them  either,  but   rather   formed   the   essential 
foundation  for  all  that  which  they  composed  or  spoke  in 
glorification  of  the  symbol  of  redemption.      Thus    Bala^us 
(about  430),  in  his  fifth  panegyric  upon  Acacius  of  Bercea, 
represents  this  venerable  bishop  in  the  evening  of  his  life  as 
confessing  in  prayer :  "  To  Thee  did  I  crucify  my  life,  because 
I  was  mindful  of  Thy  cross ;  to  Thee  did  I  stretch  forth  my 
hands,  because  I  saw  Thine  extended  upon  the  tree.     Thy 
reproach  did  I  hear,  and  despised  my  glory ;   Thy  spitting 
upon  did  I  remember,  and  constrained  myself  unto  bearing 
and  enduring ;   for  the  raiment's  sake  which  they  put  upon 
Thee,  did  I  despise  costly  clothing.     Since  I  thus  desired  to 
honour  Thy  reproach  by  the  poorness  of  my  garment,  so  do  I 
enwrap  myself  in  Thy  glory."  - 

Among  the  WESTERN  Fathers  there  arises,  in  accord- 
ance with  their  more  practical  bent  of  mind,  the  element  of 

'  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Ep.  ad  Ainbrosiiim  et  Basilissa?/!  ;  comp.,  for  what  precedes, 
Chrysostomus,  De  cameterio  et  cruce,  §  3  (t.  ii.,p.  401,  Opp.),and  Cyrillus,  Catech. 
xiii.  I.e. 

''■  Bickell,  Aitsgezmhlte  Gediehtc  syriseher  KlnJienvdter,  S.  102. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  245 

surrender  to  the  Crucified   One  in  spirit  and  in  truth  com- 
paratively much  more   strongly ;    although  even  they  occa- 
sionally fall  into  the  panegyric  tone  of  the  Orientals,  and 
make  use  of  the  traditional  hyperboles  in  the  domain  of  the 
allegoric  typologic  glorification  of  the  sacred  symbol,  as  if  in 
rivalry  with  their  Eastern  brethren.      AMBROSE,  in  his  two 
sermons  on  the  cross,   dwells  with  manifest  delight  on  this 
brilliant  outward  aspect  of  the  cultus  of  the  cross.     Thus,  when 
he  sees  the  all-embracing  extent  of  the  redemption  proceeding 
from  the  cross  on  Calvary,  expressed  in  the  arms  pointing  to 
the  four  quarters  of  the  heavens,^  or  when  he  describes  the  salu- 
tary overshadowing  operation  of  the  Tree  of  the  Cross  upon 
the  believers  gathered  around  the  Redeemer.     Yet  he  also  fre- 
quently lays  stress  upon  the  fact  that  not  the  symbol  consisting 
of  wood,  but  the  sacred  body  of  the  Redeemer  hanging  thereon, 
is  the  object  of  the  devout  reverence  of  the  Christian,  and 
that  "  if  a  man  consecrates  himself  devoutly  to  the  passion 
of  the  Saviour,  he  is  not  thereby  delivered  up  to  death,  but 
the  work  of  death  is  in  him  healed  and  taken  out  of  the 
way."-     The  like  is  the  case  with  AUGUSTINE,  who  repeatedly 
insists  with  emphasis  upon  the  ethically  typical  significance 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  upon  the  cross,  and  warns  against 
a  false  and  superstitious  confidence  in  the  external  power  of 
this  sign.     "  God  demands  active  fulfillers  of  His  salutary 
signs,  not  painters  or  depicters  of  them  ;  if  thou  bearest  the 
sign  of  the   humiliation  of  Christ    upon  thy  brow,  bear  the 
following   of  His    lowliness  and    humility  in  thine  heart !  "  ^ 
Jerome  too,  although  it  is  true  he  praises  the  ardent  self- 
surrendering  devotion  to  the  cross  displayed   by  his  pious 
friend  Paula,  who,  "  prostrate  before  the  cross,  was  wont  to 
adore  the  Lord,    as  though  she   saw  Him  (bodily)    hanging 
thereon  ;  "   yet  warns  in  connection  therewith,  in    tones  not 
dissimilar  to  those  of  Gregory  of  Nyssa  (sec  above),  against 

'  Comp.  Appendix  vii. 

-  Ambros.,  Serm.  55,  56  :  De  Cnice. 

'  Factorem  qnrerit  Deus  signoram  suorum,  non  pictorem.  Si  portas  in  fronte 
signiim  humilitatis  Christi,  porta  in  corde  imitationena  humilitatis  Christi,  Serm. 
32,  c.  13.      Comp.  Serm.  302,  c.  3,  etc. 


246  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

the  errors  of  a  one-sided  external  cultus  in  this  domain. 
"  Only  to  those  who  bear  their  cross  in  truth,  and  daily  rise 
with  Christ,  does  it  avail  anything  to  visit  the  scenes  of  the 
Crucifixion  and  Resurrection.  Let  him  who  says,  '  The 
temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,'  suffer  the 
Apostle  to  say  to  him,  '  Ye  are  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost  dwelleth  in  you. '  "  From  fanatical  hyper- 
asceticism,  too,  and  hot-blooded  aspiration  for  martyrdom,  he 
emphatically  dissuades.  "  Not  merely  the  shedding  of  one's 
blood  is  reckoned  to  us  (by  the  Lord)  as  martyrdom,  but  the 
undefiled  religious  service  of  the  pious  mind  is  a  daily  and 
ever-enduring  martyrdom."  ^ 

To  the  most  important  contributions  which  the  ascetic 
literature  of  the  earlier  Church  has  made  to  our  subject 
belong  the  Passion  Sermons  of  Leo  the  Great.-  They 
glorify  the  cross  of  the  Lord  in  a  tone  of  sublime  enthusiasm, 
yet  without  the  excesses  of  high-sounding  phraseology  or 
inflated  rhetoric  ;  zealously  bringing  into  relief  the  typological 
correspondences  with  the  typical  in  the  Old  Testament, 
together  with  the  other  symbolically  significant  features, 
without  becoming  wearisome  by  an  excess  of  allegoristic 
references ;  everywhere  having  due  regard  to  the  practical 
point  of  view,  without  repeating  the  language  of  a  sickly  and 
unnatural  asceticism.  The  cross  is  celebrated  as  the  true 
altar  of  sacrifice,  proclaimed  beforehand  by  the  voice  of 
prophecy,  on  which  "  the  blood  of  the  spotless  Lamb  of  God 
washed  away  the  old  hereditary  sin  ;  where  Satan's  adverse 
yoke  of  dominion  was  broken ;  where  humble  lowliness  tri- 
umphed over  proudly  exulting  arrogance,"  etc.  It  is  "  the  alone 
true  source  and  firm  foundation  of  the  hope  of  Christians," 
the  sacred  place  of  execution,  whence  the  exalted  Redeemer 
"  drew  heaven  and  earth  into  a  communion  of  grace  with 
Himself,"  the  fountain  of  all  blessings,  the  "ground  of  all 
gracious  gifts  ;  that  by  which  the  weakness  of  believers   is 

'  Ep.  108  ad  Ezistoch.,  c.  31  ;  Ep.  49  ad  Patilin.       Comp.   also  the  author's 
monograph  on  Jerome,  S.  459. 

'  Scrm.  Hi. — Ixx. :  De  Passione  Domini  (pp.  198 — 278,  0pp.). 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  247 

turned  into  strength,  reproach  into  glory,  death  into  Hfe." 
At  the  cross  we  have  to  comprehend  the  wondrous  mystery 
of  the  paschal  sacrifice;  after  the  image  of  Him,  who  out  of 
love  became  like  unto  our  deformity,  to  be  formed  anew  ;  to 
Him,  who  out  of  our  poor  dust  prepared  to  Himself  his  body 
of  glory,  to  raise  ourselves  ;  to  be  turned  aside  by  nothing 
temporal  from  pressing  forward  in  the  imperial  road  to  glory. 
He  therefore  who,  assailed  by  the  power  of  lusts,  is  in  danger 
of  quitting  the  way  of  obedience  and  truth,  let  him  fly  back 
to  the  cross  of  the  Lord,  let  him  nail  the  motions  of  his 
corrupt  will  to  the  wood  of  life,  let  him  with  the  prophet  im- 
plore of  the  Lord  :  "  Nail  (to  it)  my  flesh  by  thy  fear  ;  for  I 
am  afraid  of  thy  judgments  !  "  ^  The  Cross  of  Christ  is 
alike  the  means  of  grace  {sacrauicntiuii)  of  the  Divine  revela- 
tion of  salvation,  as  the  pattern  {exeinpluni)  for  animating  us 
to  a  pious  mind  and  conversation ;  as  it  delivers  us  from  the 
yoke  of  the  bondage  of  death,  so  does  it  also  confer  upon  us 
power  to  follow  the  Crucified  One.  "  If  thus  a  conflict  should 
be  imposed  on  us  against  the  pride  of  this  world,  against  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  or  against  the  arrows  of  the  heretics,  let  us 
never  enter  into  the  conflict  save  as  armed  with  the  cross  of 
the  Lord  !  "  - — That  which  affects  us  most  agreeably  in  these 
sermons  of  a  Romish  Pope  is  the  almost  utter  absence  of 
references  to  the  miserable  outward  forms  of  the  traditional 
Catholic  cultus  of  the  cross,  as  this  prevailed  far  and  wide 
even  at  that  time  :  to  reliquary  crosses,  fragments  (splinters) 
of  the  true  cross  in  Jerusalem,  miracles  wrought  by  means  of 
the  cross,  etc.  As  far  as  this  spiritual  conception  and  defence 
of  the  fundamental  truths  of  salvation  is  concerned,  Leo  still 
walks  essentially  in  the  footsteps  of  Augustine,  his  theo- 
logical teacher  and  exemplar.  1\\  Gregory  the  Great, 
however,  hardly  a  century  and  a  half  later,  there  already 
meets  us,  spite  of  the  Augustinism  in  principle  and  form  even 

'  I's.  cxix.  120,  according  to  the  LXX.  :  Ka^vJXwcroi'  e/c  rov  (poliov  aov  ras 
aapKas  ixov,  k.t.X.    {Viilg. :  Confige  timore  tuo  canies  meas. )     Sc-rut.  Ixx.  c.  4. 

-  The  last  propositions  from  Senn.  Ixxii.  :  De  Resurrectione  Domini,  ii., 
cc.  I,  4. 


248  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  this  Church  Father,  a  considerably  more  external  and 
material  mode  of  treating  the  article  of .  the  Cross,  on  its 
theoretical  and  practical  sides.  Where  he  speaks  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  Cross  as  the  final  end  and  culminating 
point  in  the  development  of  the  history  of  Redemption,  his 
discourse  is  seldom  free  from  an  exuberant  typological  tur- 
gidity.  From  a  devout  use  of  relics  of  the  cross  and  other 
kinds  of  relics  he  looks  for  extraordinary  salutary  effects, 
wrought  inwardly  and  outwardly  upon  the  life  of  Christians  ; 
the  adoration  of  the  Cross  is  regarded  by  him  as  a  means  for 
deliverance  from  the  bonds  of  sin.^  Christ's  redeeming  work, 
completed  on  the  cross,  he  represents  indeed,  as  to  the  thing 
itself,  in  harmony  with  earlier  writers — e.g.,  Leo  among  others 
— although  in  much  cruder  language — as  a  deceiving  of 
Satan,  a  being  taken  on  the  part  of  the  devil  on  the  hook  of 
the  Incarnation.-  Even  his  magic  hierarchical  theory  of  the 
sacrament  of  the  altar,  as  an  unbloody  repetition  of  the 
bloody  offering  of  Calvary  by  the  hand  of  the  priest,  is 
closely  connected  with  this  his  proneness  to  a  sensuous 
external  way  of  looking  at  things. 

In  the  theology  of  the  Middle  Ages  proper,  the  views 
represented  severally  by  Leo  I.  and  Gregory  I.,  the  deeper 
and  more  spiritual  one  of  the  former  and  the  more  sensuous 
one  of  the  latter,  hold  each  other  substantially  in  equipoise. 
The  official  ecclesiastical  tradition,  cherished  and  maintained 
by  Scholasticism,  in  the  West  as  in  the  East,  from  the 
twelfth  century  downwards,  leans  strongly  in  favour  of  the 
sensuous  external  mode  of  interpretation,  while  the  deeper 
Augustinian-Leonine  conception  lives  on  mainly  within  the 
circles  of  the  Mystics.  As  stern  or  even  decided  opponents 
of  the  magic-superstitious  tendency  do  the  latter  hardly  ever 
show  themselves.  Entire  rejection  of  the  external  cultus  of 
the  cross  was  regarded  from  the  time  of  the  violent  assault  on 


'  Comp.  also  the  miraculous  histories  communicated  by  him,  as  to  the  magically 
healing,  delivering,  or  converting  effect  of  the  cross  or  cross-symbol ;  e.g. ,  Dialog. 
1.  i.,  c.  10  ;  1.  ii.,  c.  7. 

2  Moralia  in  Job,  c\\.  \.  33. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  249 

the  part  of  Claude  of  Turin,  and  still  more  from  the  time  of 
the  Petrobrusians  and  Waldenses — to  whom  reference  has 
been  already  made — as  heretical.  As  the  whole  ecclesias- 
tical system  of  the  veneration  of  saints,  images,  and  relics, 
so  do  also  the  symbol  of  the  cross  and  crucifix,  remain 
altogether  unassailed  on  the  part  of  the  Mystics  in  all  the 
influence  of  their  position  in  the  religious  and  secular  life 
of  the  people.  Bolder  spirits,  arising  with  a  freer  energy, 
as,  e.g.,  in  the  East,  the  celebrated  Archbishop  Eustathius 
of  Thessalonica — a  man  less  indeed  of  a  mystical  than  of  a 
Biblical-practical  bent — in  the  West,  Meister  Eckart,  oppose 
no  doubt  the  unbridled  excesses  of  asceticism  and  the  silly 
confidence  in  the  mechanical  and  frequently  pharisaic-hypo- 
critical  practices  of  monkery,  but  never  speak  a  word  against 
the  ecclesiastically  sanctioned  means  for  the  quickening 
of  devotion  or  for  the  advancement  and  guidance  in  an 
ascetic  direction  of  the  penitential  impulse. — How  rankly  an 
esentially  external,  superstitious,  self-righteous  {ivcrkJicilige) 
tJieologia  crucis  has  flourished  and  bloomed,  in  the  EAST 
especially,  since  the  triumph  over  the  iconoclastic  tendency, 
is  made  manifest  by  the  sermons,  preserved  in  considerable 
number,  of  a  succession  of  exalted  dignitaries  of  the  Byzantine 
Church,  in  which  the  audience  is  exhorted  to  the  observance 
now  of  this,  now  of  that  festival  in  honour  of  the  "  venerable 
and  life-giving  cross."  Gretser  has  contributed  a  respectable 
number  of  such  sermons  on  the  festivals  of  the  cross — in 
Greek,  accompanied  with  a  Latin  translation — of  which  not 
a  few  had  remained  unknown  until  his  time,  in  the  second 
volume  of  his  oft-mentioned  work.^  Small  as  is  their  theo- 
logical value,  that  is  yet  very  instructive,  and  characteristic 
of  the  spirit  of  the  devotion  of  the  East  in  the  Middle 
Ages  in  general,  and  of  the  history  of  the  development  of 
our  subject  in  particular,  which  is  said  by  a  Nicetas  the 
Paphlagonian,   Andreas   of    Crete,   Joseph   of  Thessalonica, 

'  De  Criuc,  torn,  ii.,  in  quo  varia  Grrecorum  auctorum  encominstica  monu- 
menta  Grreco-Latina  de  SS.  cruce  continentur,  nunc  primum  ex  variis  bibliothecis 
eruta,  ciet.  (Ingolst.  1600). 


350  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Theophanes  Cerameus,  the  Presbyter  Pantaleo,  the  Patriarch 
Xiphilinus,  the  Patriarch  Germanus  (II.)  of  Constantinople, 
the  Emperor  Leo  the  Philosopher,  etc.,  in  praise  of  the  most 
sacred  cross.      It  is  an  exuberant  luxuriating  in  the  gush 
of  encomiastic  utterances  and  the  most  high-sounding  attri- 
butes possible — similar  to  that  in  the  verses  of  the  preaching 
Syrians  of  the  fifth  century — which  is  here  to  be  perceived  : 
much  tickling   of  the  ears,  but  little  touching  of  the  heart, 
expresses  in  general  the  impression  produced  by  them.      An 
"invincible   panoply  of   Christian   folk,   a   brazen  wall   over 
which  no  robber  can  climb,  an  immovable  tower  against  the 
enemy,  the  rejoicing  and   the  crown  of  angels,  the  discom- 
fiture and  shattering  of  all  evil  spirits,  the  offence  and  de- 
basement of  the  Jews,  the  refutation  and  condemnation  of 
the  heathen," — in  these  and  yet  other  high-sounding  encomi- 
ums does  that  Nicetas  Paphlago  {circa  880)  speak  of  the  sacred 
symbol.^     But  that  which  is  most  high-flown  in  connection 
with  this  subject  is  afibrded  by  a  homily,  falsely  ascribed  to 
Chrysostom,  but   assuredly   belonging   only   to   the    Middle 
Ages,  "  on  the  venerable  and  life-giving  cross,  and  on  the 
fall." "      "  Wilt  thou  learn  the  power  of  the  cross,"  it  is  there 
said  inter  alia,  "  and  the  encomiums  due  to  it,  then  listen  : 
the  cross  is  the  hope  of  Christians,  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  the  leader  of  the  blind,  the  confidence  of  the  desponding, 
the  way  of  the  wanderers,  the  avenger  of  the  wronged,  the 
staff  of  the  halting,  the  solace  of  the  poor,  the  bridle  of  the 
rich,  the  humiliation  of  the  arrogant,  the   penitence  of  the 
disorderly,  the  token  of  victory  over  the  demons,  the  defeat 
of  the  devil,  the  instructor  of  children,  the  abundance  of  the 
needy,  the  steersman  of  the  mariner,  the  haven  of  the  ship- 
wrecked, the  rampart    of   the   besieged,    the    father    of  the 
orphans,  the  protector  of  the  widows,  the  judge  of  the  un- 
righteous, the  pillar  of  the  righteous,  the  repose  of  the  dis- 

'  .Serm.  in  exalt,  venerab.  Crucis,  in  Combefis,  Aitctar.  blbliotli.  Gr.  I.,  p. 
440  sq. 

^  Psuedo-Chrysost  Sermo  in  venerab.  ac  viN'if.  Ci"uceni,[in  O^jp.  Chrys.,  ed. 
Mtintfauc,  t.  ii.,  p.  820  sqq. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  25  I 

tressed,  the  guardian  of  the  little  ones,  the  head  of  men,  the 
goal  of  the  aged,  the  light  of  those  sitting  in  darkness,  the 
majesty  of  kings,  the  humanity  of  barbarians,  the  liberty  of 
slaves,  the  wisdom  of  inexperienced,  the  law  of  those  in 
anarchy,  the  promise  of  the  prophets,  the  proclamation  of 
the  apostles,  the  glory  of  the  martyrs,  the  discipline  {asccsis) 
of  the  monks,  the  chastity  of  virgins,  the  joy  of  priests,  the 
foundation  of  the  Church,  the  security  of  the  world,  the 
destruction  of  idol  temples  and  altars,  the  dispersing  of  the 
odour  of  the  fat  (in  offerings),  the  offence  of  the  Jews,  the 
condemnation  of  the  ungodly,"  etc. 

The  Western  ecclesiastical  literature,  too,  has  its  pane- 
gyrics upon  the  symbol  of  redemption,  but  these  are  generally 
restrained  within  the  limits  of  moderation  and  good  taste. 
Odilo  of  Clugny  (t  1048)  appeals  in  devout  prayer  to  the 
Crucified:  "To  Him,  in  whose  name  the  knees  of  all  in 
heaven,  on  earth,  and  under  the  earth  do  bow,  do  I  humbly 
confess  my  guilt,  to  Him,  the  Father  of  all  spirits,  both  those 
on  earth  and  those  in  heaven ;  and  command  thee,  ancient 
enemy  of  our  race.  Turn  away  from  me  thy  secret  devices 
and  thine  evil  machinations  !  For  with  me  is  the  cross  of 
the  Lord,  whom  I  constantly  worship  ;  it  is  my  tower  of 
resort,  my  way,  and  my  strength,  the  invisible  standard,  the 
banner  of  love  which  knows  no  defeat,  which  expels  all  evil, 
which  scatters  before  it  all  darkness  !  By  its  power  I  will  walk 
the  way  to  heaven  ;  it  is  to  me  life,  to  thee,  O  arch-enemy, 
death  !  The  cross  of  our  Lord  be  my  ornament  and  glory  ; 
His  blood  remain  my  true  redemption  !  "  ^ — Prayers,  or  con- 
templation or  paraeneses  of  a  like  character  are  moreover 
found  among  countless  other  ecclesiastical  writers  from  the 
time  of  the  Carolingians  to  the  Reformation.  Some  specially 
touching  prayerful  meditations  belonging  to  this  order 
(JDrationes)  are  contained  in  the  works  of  Anselm  of  Canter- 
bury, the  founder  of  a  deeper,  more  ethically  matured,  and 
purer  conception  of  the  mystery  of  the  redeeming  death  of 

'  Odil.  Cluniac.  abb.,  Orat.  in  crucem  adorand.,  in  Bil>I.  Fair.  max.  Liidg.,  t. 
xvii.,  f.  653. 


252  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Jesus,  in  the  midst  of  an  age  only  too  much  given  to  an 
external  or  magical  and  superstitious  mode  of  regarding  the 
subject.  "Hail,"  it  is  said  in  one  of  them,  "hail,  glorious, 
precious  wood,  which  the  Creator  Himself  has  sanctified  by 
His  contact !  through  heaven  and  earth  beams  thy  radiance, 
through  the  ages  is  its  brightness  shed  ;  yea,  hell  itself  is  lit 

up  with  it What  tree  is  to    be   compared   to   this 

wood  ?  Christ  Himself  is  here  blossom  and  fruit,  fragrance 
and  perfume,  leaf  and  crown.  Be  then  to  me  also  the  very 
Tree  of  Life,  open  to  me  the  gate  of  Paradise,  and  unite  me 
to  Him  who  hung  upon  thee,  unto  all  eternity  ! "  ^ — With 
Anselm  vies  St.  Bernard  in  fervent  adoration  and  ascrip- 
tion of  praise  to  the  cross.  Several  of  the  allegorical  and 
moral  contemplations  or  sentcntias  upon  our  subject  most 
favourite  in  later  times  come  down  from  him,  or  are  at  least 
ordinarily  taken  from  his  writings.  Thus  that  of  the  robber 
spirit  which  underlies  our  dread  of  the  cross  ;  for  if  we  were 
not  thieves  or  robbers,  we  should  not  fear  the  cross.  In  like 
manner  that  of  the  four  ends  or  arms  of  the  cross  as  emblems 
of  the  four  Christian  virtues :  love,  long-suffering,  hope,  fear 
of  God  (or,  otherwise,  abstinence,  patience,  wisdom,  humility.)- 
A  sententia  recurring  with  special  frequency,  and  wrought 
out  in  various  ways,  in  these  ascetic  meditations  upon  our 
subject,  those  of  Bernard  included,  is  that  of  the  two  equally 
authorised  modes  of  bearing  the  cross  of  Christ — the  sensuous, 
consisting  in  the  mortification  of  the  body,  and  the  spiritual, 
which  was  carried  out  by  a  devout  contemplation  of  the 
Crucified,  or  even  by  compassion  towards  one's  neighbour. 
"  In  two  ways  may  we  take  up  the  cross ;  either  in  that  we 
afflict  the  body  by  mortification  and  abstinence,  or  that  by 

'  Orat.  42.  Comp.  also  Oral.  41,  and  especially  0}-at.  43.  the  most  poweiTu] 
of  these  meditations  on  the  cross. 

-  Bernard.  Meditat.  in  passion,  et  resurrect.  Domini,  c.  6.  {Opp  cd  AlahilL, 
t.  ii.,  f.  507  sq.).  Comp.  De  S.  Andrea  apost.  Sermo  ii.  (t.  i.,  f.  1066).  The 
Sententia  :  Quare  timent  homines  crucem  ?  Quia  latrones  sunt  :  Si  latrones  non 
essent,  crucem  non  timerent,  is  found  also  in  the  'writings  of  Bernard's  contem- 
porary, Dmgo  of  Ostia  {Bibl.  max.  t.  xxi.,  f.  332).  But  it  must  certainly  Ije 
original  in  Bernard's  writings. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  253 

compassion  we  make  the  sufferings  of  our  neighbour  our  own." 
Something  hke  this  reads  the  sentence  to  which  currency 
was  first  given  by  Gregory  the  Great,  one  whicli  exceedingly 
often,  and  indeed  almost  regularly,  recurs  in  the  expositions 
of  the  Gospels  during  the  Middle  Ages,  at  the  passage  Matt, 
xvi.  24  (and  parallels,  Mark  viii.  34  ;  Luke  ix.  23),^  which 
moreover  is  found  adopted  among  the  instructions  addressed 
by  Pope  Nicholas  I.  to  the  newly  converted  Bulgarians,  in 
answer  to  their  questions  and  difficulties,'  and  also  pretty 
frequently  repeated  by  others,  e.g.,  by  Odilo  of  Clugny  in  the 
second  book  of  his  Collations,  by  Bonaventura  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  tractate  on  the  "  Wood  of  Life,"  and  in  various 
other  passages  from  his  writings.^  The  "seraphic  Doctor," 
Bonaventura,  the  enthusiastic  admirer  of  St.  Francis  and 
his  wound-marks,  belongs  in  all  respects  to  the  most  zealous 
of  those  panegyrists  of  the  cross,  who  not  only  lavish  en- 
comiums upon  the  outward  symbol  of  redemption,  but  also 
insist  upon  the  inner  or  moral  significance  of  this  symbol. 
His  method,  it  is  true,  is  often  characterised  by  a  certain 
verbal  play,  and  the  employment  of  manifold  partitions  of 
more  or  less  ingenuity,  artistic  schematisms,  typological 
figures,  generally  adopted  from  earlier  writers,  especially 
from  Bernard,  yea,  here  and  there  by  his  approvingly  citing 
and  even  reproducing  such  florid  descriptions  as  that  of 
pseudo-Chrysostom  as  given  above.*  Li  a  chapter  of  the 
"  Compendium  of  Theological  Truth  "  ascribed  to  him — 
according  to  others,  proceeding  from  the  pen  of  Thomas  of 


'  Duobus  modis  crucem  Domini  bajulamu.s,  cum  aut  per  abstinentiam  carnem 
aflfligimus,  aut  per  compassionem  proximi  necessitatem  illius  nostram  putamus. 
So  Greg.  Max.,  Horn.  37  in  Evang.,  and  entirely  similarly  Horn.  32,  Of  later 
writers  comp.,  e.g.,  Bede,  in  Matth.  xvi.  24  {0pp.  cd.  Basil.,  t.  v.,  f.  70). 
Christ.  Druthmar  in  Matth.  xvi.  27  {Bibl.  max.,  t.  xv.)  ;  Anselm  on  Matth. 
xvi.  {0pp.,  t.  i.,  p.  89) ;  Zacharias  Chrysopolitanus,  In  itniini  ex  qiiatiior,  i.  {Bibl. 
max.,  t.  xxi.),  etc. 

-  Nicolai  Resp.  ad  Bulgar.,  c.  7  (in  Harduin  Concill.,  t.  v.) 

=*  Odilo,  Collat,  I.  ii.  (t.  xvii.  Bibl.  max.,  f.  285).  Bonavent.,  Phardr.  I.  iv., 
c.  7  ;  Diicta.  Sal.,  Tit.  vii.  c.  4,  etc. 

■'  riiarctr.  I.  4  (0pp.  t.  i.,  p.  108).  Comp.  Exposit.  viisscc,  c.  4  (Opp.  t.  ii., 
p.  80). 


2  54  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Aquino,  but  at  any  rate  composed  more  in  the  style  of 
Bonaventura — which  treats  of  the  cross  of  the  Lord,  the 
three  operations  of  the  instrument  of  suffering  on  Calvary 
are  first  enumerated,  namely,  the  sentence  executed  thereupon, 
the  shame  thereon  endured,  and  the  salutary  fruit  of  redemp- 
tion thereby  obtained  {supplichun,  opprobrium,  prctium).  Then 
follows  the  enumeration  of  twenty-four  types  of  the  cross, 
taken  partly  from  the  Old  Testament,  partly  from  the  New  ; 
then  that  of  the  seven  last  words  of  the  Redeemer,  accom- 
panied with  brief  practical  application  ;  then  an  explanation 
of  the  four  arms  of  the  cross,  as  having  reference  to  the  four 
virtues  of  love,  humility,  obedience,  patience,  or  to  the  four 
benefits  wrought  by  Christ — the  opening  of  heaven,  the 
destruction  of  hell,  the  communication  of  graces,  the  for- 
giveness of  sins  ;  finally,  an  allusion  to  the  fou'r  species  of 
wood  or  trees  out  of  which,  according  to  the  legend,  the 
cross  of  the  Lord  was  put  together. 

"  Palm,  cedar,  cypress,  and  olive,  the  trees  of  the  cross."  ' 

More  free  from  externalism,  more  indifferent  in  regard  to 
traditional  forms  and  formulas,  and  altogether  of  a  more 
spiritual  character,  is  that  which  is  taught  by  the  tertiarian 
Franciscan  nun  Angela  of  Foligno,  of  somewhat  later 
date  than  the  preceding  (t  1309),  a  favourite  authoress  with 
all  subsequent  Ouietists  and  Mystics,  in  her  "  Theology  of  the 
Cross  of  Jesus  Christ."  True  resignation  under  the  sufferings 
and  afflictions  imposed  by  the  Lord  is  here  declared  to  be 
preferable  to  all  self-elected  penances  and  mortifications, 
"  The  heavenly  Physician  surely  knows  incomparably  better 
than  the  sick  and  disordered  human  being,  as  to  what  morti- 
fications or  trials  are  best  adapted  to  purify  and  raise  the 
soul.  The  self-chosen  exercises  of  penance  and  denials  are 
only  too  often  subject  to  vain  self-complacency,  whilst  those 
coming  upon  us  by  the  disposal  of  Divine  providence,  if  we 

1  Crux  Domini  palma,  cedrus,  cypressus,  oliva,  with  the  mystical  reference  of 
the  cedar  to  the  altitndo  coiitcmplationis,  the  cypress  to  the  fama  bonce  opiiiionis, 
the  palm  to  \h&fritctiis  jjistitiic,  the  olive  to  the  lenitas  miscricorduc.  (Compend. 
Theol.  Veritatis,  1.  iv.,  c.  1 6,  p.  773,  t.  ii.,  0pp.  S.  I'onavent.) 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  255 

bear  them  with  true  patience  and  submission  as  coming  from 
God's  hand,  are  veiled  indeed  before  the  eyes  of  men  with 
the  appearance  that  we  must  bear  them  of  necessity,    .... 
but   in  reahty   are    to  be   embraced   with    all    heartiness,  as 
favours  afforded  to  us  by  our  supreme  physician  and  Saviour, 
out  of  pure  love  for  our  everlasting  salvation."^     From  the 
writings  of  these  venerated  churchly  and  monastic  authorities 
of  the  eleventh  century  to  the  thirteenth,  especially  those  of 
Bernard  and  Bonaventura,  partly  also  from  those  of  Angela 
of  Foligno,  does  the  popular  German  Mysticism  of  the  last 
period  of  the  Middle  Ages  principally  derive  the  material  of 
the    conceptions,  partitions,  and    turns  of  discourse,   on   the 
ground  of  which  it  continues  to  develop  our  article,  alike  on 
the  theoretic-contemplative  as  on  the  practical  ascetic  side. 
An  increasing  operation  of  its  speculation  upon  the  idea  of 
the  cross,  and  upon  the  influence  of  this  idea  in  practical  life, 
with  the  effect  of  rendering  that  idea  itself  more  spiritual  and 
profound,  one  can  hardly  fail  to  recognise.     Even  in  the  case 
of  Berthold  of  Regensburg,  the  venerated  preacher  of 
the  Franciscans  in  the  times  of  the  Interregnum  (t  1272),  do 
the  parasneses  admonishing  to  the  taking  up  and  bearing  of 
the    cross    of   Christ    assume   a  tone    unusually  hearty,  and 
popularly  warm  and  fresh.     In  the  beautiful  sermon  on  the 
cross  of  the  Lord,  "Von  dem  heren  Kriuze,""  he  treats  first  of 
the  saint  whose   day  it  was    (22nd  July),  Mary  Magdalene, 
whom  he  compares  to  the  moon,  while  the  blessed  Virgin 
Mary,  who  mourns  with  her  at  the  cross,  is  like  the  sun, — the 
form.er,  an  image  of  the  light  of  night  with  its  spots,  as  it 
were  tears  of  penitence  for  sin,  the  latter  an  image  of  the 
gloriously    beaming    light    of  day.      The    depicting   of   the 
blessedness  and  glory  which  a  Mary  Magdalene,  too,  enjoys 
with  the  Lord  in  heaven,  prepares  the  way  for  a  description 
of  the  last  judgment.     At  that  time,  Christ  the  Judge  of  the 
world  will  receive  no  one  into  favour,  who  does  not  appear 

'  B.  Angelas  de  Fulignio  Passus  Spiiituales,  etc.,  c.  10  (in  Pita  B.  Angehr,  and. 
Arnold.;  A  A.  SS.,  4  Jan.).     Comp.  Tersteegen,  Ldai  heiliger  Seelcn,  Bd.  ii.,  St.  5. 
-  Pfeiffer,  Bert/told  von  J^egcns/'.,  i.  537—548. 


256  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

before  Him  laden  with  a  cross  of  some  kind.  "  Dar  bringet 
San  Peter  sin  kriuze  ;  so  bringet  einer  sin  houbet,  daz  ist  im 
abe  geslagen  in  dem  dienste  unseres  herren  ;  so  bringet  der 
guote  Sant  Andres  sin  kriuze ;  so  bringet  der  guote  San 
Bartolomeus  sine  hut  uf  im  ;  so  bringet  der  guote  San 
Laurencius  sinen  rost ;  so  bringet  der  diz,  so  bringet  der  daz. 
Alse  si  eht  die  martel  geliten  hant,  so  habent  sie  ir  kriuze 
volleistet.  '  Owe  bruoder  Berhtold,  wie  geschieht  danne  den 
die  keine  martel  liten  .'' '  Die  miizent  ouch  ir  kriuze  tragen 
oder  sie  enkoment  niemer  in  die  freude  unser  herren  me."' 
For,  it  is  now  further  shown,  many  thousand  saints  are  bliss- 
ful in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  who  had  never  endured  a 
martyrdom,  but  who  none  the  less  were  saved,  because  they 
were  able  to  point,  in  place  of  their  martyrdom,  at  least  to  a 
"cross  with  four  places  (ends),"  i.e.,  the  spiritual  cross  of 
following  Jesus  in  the  four  main  virtues, — the  same  spiritual 
cross  which  had  also  brought  Mary  Magdalene  to  heaven, 
though  she  was  "  never  tortured  in  martyrdom."  As  the  four 
virtues  which  form  the  "  places  "  or  arms  of  this  spiritual 
cross,  he  designates,  freely  adapting  the  language  of  S.  Ber- 
nard, that  of  faith  (above),  that  of  love  (on  the  right  hand),  of 
hope  (on  the  left),  and  of  staetikeit,  or  patience,  which  last 
forms  the  upholding  stem  and  firm  foundation  of  the  others : 
"  Daz  ir  mit  diesen  drin  tugenden  staete  suit  sin."  In  inge- 
nious and  frequently  animating,  sometimes  even  enchaining, 
descriptions  of  this  tetrade  of  virtues  does  he  then  proceed  to 
the  close  of  the  sermon.  Especially  in  regard  to  hope  and  its 
demoniacal  opposite,  evil  zzvivel  (doubt),  this  sin  of  sins, 
does  he  excellently  discourse. — Marked  by  greater  regard  to 
the  essential  import,  freer  from  the  allusive  externalities  of  the 
allegorical  moral  tradition,  and  more  directly  testifying  from 

'  "  Then  St.  Peter  brings  with  him  his  cross  ;  another  brings  his  head,  which 
was  cut  off  in  the  service  of  our  Lord  ;  good  St.  Andrew  brings  his  cross  ;  good 
St.  Bartholomew  brings  his  skin  (scalp),  good  St.  Lawrence  his  gridiron  ;  one 
bringing  this  and  another  that.  As  they  have  endured  martyrdom,  they  have 
accomplished  their  cross.  '  But  what  happens  then  to  those  who  have  suffered  no 
martyrdom  ?  '  They,  too,  must  bear  their  cross,  or  they  will  never  come  (with  the 
others)  into  the  joy  of  our  Lord." 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  2  5/ 

an  independent  profound  apprehension  and  experience  of  the 
Christian  mysteries,  is  the  teaching  of  Meister  EcKART  con- 
cerning our  subject.  And  yet,  with  all  the  spiritual  innerness 
of  his  religious  views  and  conceptions,  he  detracts  nothing  of 
its  objective  fundamental  world-renewing  significance  from 
the  sacrifice  of  the  eternal  Son  of  God  upon  the  cross.  He 
lays,  however,  just  because  he  places  the  central  point  (centre 
of  gravity)  of  the  work  of  salvation  essentially  in  the  Divine 
doing,  but  little  stress  upon  man's  endeavour  after  virtue ; 
and  forms  a  decidedly  unfavourable  judgment  alike  of  external 
mortifications  and  of  a  self-imposed  cross.  He  declares  those 
to  be  asses,  who  think  they  can  attain  to  spiritual  poverty  and 
resignation  by  means  of  fasting  and  penances  ;  for  "it  is  far 
better  to  esteem  a  rational  work  than  a  bodily  work."  A 
denying,  perceiving,  and  combating  of  cherished  sinful  incli- 
nations "is  more  becoming  to  thee,  than  though  thou  shouldst 
fast  at  the  same  time  from  all  nourishment."  Ascetic 
"peculiarity  in  clothing,  in  food,  in  words  or  gestures,"  he 
designates  as  something  to  be  shunned.  Not  less  does  he 
warn  against  the  externalism  of  confiding  in  "the  dead  bones" 
of  relics,  in  pilgrimages,  and  other  superstitious  rites  of 
cultus.^  Much  in  his  expressions  regarding  this  subject  is 
very  nearly  related  to  the  "  Cross-Theology  "  of  the  but  little 
earlier  Angela  of  Foligno.  Yet  it  appears  doubtful  whether 
the  German  provincial  of  the  Dominicans  could  already  have 
received  intelligence  of  the  writings  of  the  Italian  nun  of  the 
third  order  of  St.  Francis. — Similar  to  the  doctrine  of  Eckart 
is  that  which  is  proclaimed  by  Tauler,  who  also  warns 
against  the  self-made  myrrh,  against  hairy  shirts  and  cilices, 
which  can  surely  bring  no  peace  ;  and  of  those  two  modes  of 
bearing  the  cross,  the  ascetic-mortifying  and  the  spiritual- 
ethic,  displayed  in  compassion  and  self-sacrificing  love  to 
one's  neighbour,  commends  the  latter  as  by  far  the  more 
excellent. — Suso  too,  the  severe  self-torturer  even  unto 
blood,  rises   in   his   later  years   to   a   purer   and  more  just 

■  W.  Preger,  Gcsch.  dcr  dcitischcn  iMystik  i/ii  Mittelaltcr,  i.  (1874),  S.  450  ff.  ; 
cp.  426  f. 


258  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

recognition  of  the  true  value  of  those  external  exercises  once 
zealously  practised.  He  confessed  to  having  been  withdrawn 
from  his  excessive  rigours,  and  directed  into  the  "  reasonable 
school  of  true  inner  resignation,"  the  only  true  art  and  mode 
of  cross-bearing,  by  an  unmistakable  and  emphatic  manifesta- 
tion of  God  Himself.^ — A  non-German  representative  of  the 
mystic  theology,  who,  however,  is  inwardly  closely  related  to 
the  German  school  of  Mystics,  St.  Brigitta,  belongs  to  the 
number  of  the  most  ardently  loving  adorers  of  the  cross  of 
Christ :  she  is  wont  on  this  account  seldom  to  be  depicted 
otherwise  than  as  near  a  cross,  or  as  adorned  with  one.  The 
self-torturing  cruelty  of  the  experiments  with  the  dropping  of 
wax,  before  mentioned,  in  connection  with  her  Friday  medita- 
tions on  the  Passion,  did  not  even  in  her  case  prevent  the 
rising  to  a  more  spiritual  apprehension  of  the  nature  of  the 
grace  of  the  Crucified  One,  yea,  to  the  acknowledgment, 
"  Even  though  man  should  suffer  his  body  to  be  a  thousand 
times  put  to  death  for  God's  sake,  yet  he  avails  nothing  to 
make  satisfaction  to  God  for  a  single  sin,  to  answer  God  on  a 
single  point.  All  is  pure  grace — therefore  always  do  good 
works,  but  reckon  them  always  as  nothing,"  etc.  As  the 
expression  of  a  truly  pure  and  decidedly  evangelical  know- 
ledge, these  and  similar  utterances  of  the  Swedish  visionary 
are  certainly  not  to  be  regarded  ;  since  again  exhortations  to 
the  "  meriting  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  with  good  works," 
and  such-like,  also  proceed  side  by  side  with  them.  But  on 
the  mystery  of  the  cross,  the  "  main  and  central  point  of  all 
her  observations,"  she  has  nevertheless  breathed  many  a 
profoundly  thoughtful  and  touching  utterance,  which  shows 
that  she  had  learnt  not  merely  outwardly  to  contemplate  and 
sensuously  to  depict  that  wondrous  "  interpenetrating  of  the 
righteousness  and  compassionating  love  of  Him  who,  as  the 
pelican,  nourishes  His  young  with  His  blood,"  but  also  in  the 
depth  of  her  heart  to  know  and  experience  it.^ 

The  most  glorious  confessions,  in  the  sense  of  an  earnest 

'  M.  Diepen brock,  Sitso's  Leben  n.  Schriften,  S.  42  ff.,  287  f. 
^  Hammerich,  St.  Brigitta,  S.  244  f. ;  comp.  S.  222. 


IN   THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  259 

theology  of  the  cross,  ennobled  and  sanctified  by  a  penetra- 
tion into  the  depths  of  Christian  experience,  are  to  be  found 
in  connection  with  the  three  great  Mystics  of  the  fifteenth 
century  :  Gerson,  Thomas  a  Kempis,  and  Staupitz  ;  in 
the  case  of  each  of  them,  it  is  true,  with  a  minting  peculiarly 
his  own.  Of  JOHN  Gerson,  the  most  learned  of  those 
theologians  of  the  Middle  Ages,  who  combined  to  the  full 
extent  the  scholastic  and  the  mystic  tendency  of  mind  and 
mode  of  teaching,  it  can  hardly  be  asserted  with  justice,  that, 
as  a  preponderating  man  of  intellect,  he  contributed  "  pub- 
licly to  transmit  the  interest  in  Mysticism  only  in  the  way 
of  a  theoretical  recognition  and  nominalistic  discussion  of 
the  conditions  of  the  intuition  of  God."'  The  honourable 
title  of  a  Doctor  CJiristianissimus  belongs  to  the  venerated 
Father  of  the  Council  of  Constance,  so  far  as  he  is  a  mys- 
tical theologian,  in  reality,  and  indeed  mainly,  on  account 
of  the  decision  with  which  he  maintains  aloft  the  revealed 
objective  grace  manifested  on  the  cross,  and  exalts  this 
above  all  his  scholastic  and  mystical  speculations.^  His 
sermons,  and  especially  his  Passion  sermons,  exhort  to  a 
lowly  and  penitently  confiding  fleeing  to  the  Crucified,  who 
endured  all  that  He  did  endure  on  account  of  our  trans- 
gressions, and  who  also  will  not  reject  the  worst  sinner  that 
approaches  Him  longing  for  salvation.  "  Thou  sayest,  I 
have  done  nothing  good,  have  wrought  nothing  in  order  to 
please  God,  how  can  I  approach  the  cross  .''  Draw  near  to  it, 
nevertheless,  and  obtain  for  thyself  good,  in  becoming  united 
with  Him  in  faith,  in  hope,  in  love.     And  if  thou  repliest, 

'  This  is  the  opinion  of  A.  Ritschl  {Die  c/tristl.  Lchrc  v.  do-  Rcchtfertigung  u_ 
Versoknung,  i.  113),  who,  however,  does  but  scant  justice  to  this  towering  theolo- 
gian, or  to  the  merits  of  the  Mystics  of  the  last  centuries  of  the  Middle  Ages  in 
general,  for  the  advancement  of  evangelical  knowledge  and  preparing  the  way  for 
the  Reformation.  See  the  author's  review  of  his  work,  Beia.  des  Glauhens,  1875, 
March  part,  S.  145. 

-  Compare,  for  instance,  the  beautiful  distichs  (from  the  treatise  De  elucidal. 
scholastica  theologue  mysiiac  in  Schwab,  Joh.  Gerson,  S.  374) : 

Consciiis  est  animus  meus,  e.xperientia  testis  : 
Mystica  qua;  retuli  dogmata  vera  scio. 
Non  tamen  idcirco  scio  me  fore  glorificandura  : 
S/ics  iiiea  cnt.v  Chrisii,  gratia  iioii  opcia. 


26o  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

My  sins  are  too  great,  too  scandalous,  for  thee  to  dare  to 
approach  it,  I  say  to  thee :  Nevertheless,  draw  near  to  the 
cross  ;  for  where  sin  is  great,  the  compassion  is  yet  greater. 
Art  thou    in  want  of  purification  ?     Here   is   the   fountain. 
Needest   thou   pardon.''      Here   is   the   throne   of   grace  !"^ 
In  statements  such  as  these,  and  similar  ones — for  besides 
them,  it  is  true,  his  sermons  sometimes  present  unrefreshing 
subtleties,  e.g.,  as  to  the  re-assumption  of  the  blood  of  Christ, 
the  conflict  of  the  archangel    Michael  with    Lucifer,  etc. — 
Gerson  manifestly  stands  very  near  to   the   recognition   of 
the  truth  made  in  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
He  extends  the  hand  to  Luther  equally  much  as  does  Huss, 
in  whose  condemnation  he  took  a  prominent  part,  or  as  any 
one  of  those  other  witnesses  of  the  truth  in  his  century,  desig- 
nated as  in  the  narrower  sense  Reformers  before  the  Refor- 
mation.    In  many  respects  he  reminds  us,  moreover,  of  the 
moral  allegorising  practice  of  the  earlier  Mystics.     So  in  the 
explanation  of  the  four  ends  of  the  cross,  of  the  virtues  or 
functions   of  the  mortifying  of  sin,  the  forsaking  of  earthly 
goods,  the  suppression  of  sensual  desires,  and  the  denying 
of  one's  own  will ;  but  also  in  his  exhortations  to  discretion 
in   ascetic   zeal,    in  warnings   such    as,    "  Poor   raiment  and 
cilicium  often  enough  conceal  beneath  them   the  worm   of 
pride,"  etc.^ — THOMAS  A  Kempis,  alike  in  his  sermons  and 
meditations  as  in  the  "  Imitation  of  Christ "  (for  the  actual 
proceeding  of  which  from  his  pen,  the  recent  investigations 
of  Hirsche  have,  in   our  opinion,    afforded    decisive   proof), 
knows  no  other  way  to  light  than  that  of  the  cross.     This 
he  understands,  no  doubt,  in  the  sense,  as  well  of  an  external 
mortifying,  as  of  a  spiritual  contemplative  following  of  the 
Lord.     As  a  strict  ascetic,  he  does  not,  for  instance,  speak 
contemptibly  of  the  severe  crucifying   of  the   flesh   of  the 
"  friends   of   God ; "   he  describes   to   his   novices   this   crux 
vionachorimi    as    something    which    is   deserving,    if    not   of 
direct    imitation,   yet   of  all  admiration.     But  only  because 

'  Expos,  in  pan.  Domini,  Opp.  t.  iii.,  p.  1 195. 

^  J.  B.  Schwab,  Johann  Gerson,  363,  768  f.,  712;  cp.  393.  395. 


IN    THE    CHUKCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  26 1 

in  the  midst  of  their  self-mortifications  the  consolation 
flowing  from  the  wounds  of  the  Crucified  becomes  their 
portion  in  most  abundant  measure,  because  they  taste  "  the 
hidden  honey  from  the  rock,  because  the  oil  of  compassion 
trickling  down  from  the  blessed  wood  of  the  cross  refreshes 
them."  Enthusiastically  does  he  describe  the  glory  of  this 
Tree  of  Life,  the  implanting  of  which  in  the  heart  is  the  best 
remedy,  the  strongest  weapon,  against  all  deadly  assaults  of 
the  devil.  He  teaches  his  pupils  to  recognise  poverty  con- 
joined with  humility  as  the  sweet  root  of  this  tree  of  the 
cross,  labour  and  penitence  as  its  bark,  compassion  and 
righteousness  as  its  two  mam  branches,  truth  and  doctrine 
as  its  precious  leaves,  a  sense  of  honour  and  modesty  as 
its  blossoms,  sobriety  and  self-restraint  as  its  fragrance, 
chastity  and  obedience  as  its  beauty,  faith  and  hope  as  its 
far-shining  splendour ;  finally,  salvation  and  everlasting  life 
as  its  glorious  fruit.  "  No  forest  produces  such  a  tree ;  even 
Solomon's  gardens  bring  to  maturity  no  plant  of  like  healing 
virtue  and  like  balmy  odour.  It  is  the  most  fruitful  tree, 
blessed  above  all  the  trees  of  Paradise, — the  vine  with  Divine 
fruit,  the  fertile  olive  tree,  the  fig  tree,  rough  without,  but 
inwardly  sweet  as  honey,  the  glorious  palm,  which  is  rightly 
called  the  bearer  of  Cbrist,  because  Jesus  bore  it  upon  His 
shoulders,  and  because  then,  set  up  upon  Mount  Calvary, 
it  bore  Jesus." ^  More  soberly,  but  in  a  manner  not  less 
affecting,  and  not  less  enthusiastically,  does  he  speak  of  the 
beatitudes  of  the  cross,  as  the  true  "  royal  road  "  to  heaven, 
in  the  Imitatio  CJiristi.  The  word  of  the  Lord  concerning 
the  taking  up  of  His  cross  sounds  severe  to  many,  he  ob- 
serves, but  yet  more  severe  will  one  day  sound  to  them  the 
curse  of  the  Judge  on  account  of  the  despising  of  His  cross. 
.  .  .  .  "  Why  dost  thou  hesitate  to  take  up  the  cross }  In  it 
is  salvation,  in  it  life,  in  it  defence  against  the  enemies,  in  it 
the  infusion  of  heavenly  sweetness,  in  it  power  of  the  soul,  in 

■  Sermon,  ad  Nonntios,  esp.  P.  iii.  S.  i:  De  cruce  quotidie  tollenda,  S.  I,  7,  9,  10. 
Comp.  also  of  the  Meditations  or  Conciojics,  esp.  Med.  23  :  De  cruce  Jesu,  qiiam 
pro  nobis  ipse  portavit ;  also  Medd.  24,  27. 


2  62  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

it  joy  of  the  spirit,  in  it  perfection  of  virtue  and  sanctifica- 
tion.     There  is  no  salvation  of  the  soul,  no  hope  of  life,  save  in 

the  cross No  other  way  leads  to  life,  to  the  true  inner 

peace,  but  that  of  the  cross,  and  of  daily  dying  with  Christ ; 
for  not  in  a  multitude  of  sweetnesses  and  consolations  con- 
sists our  merit  and  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  but  in  the 
patient  bearing  of  severe  assaults  and  afflictions."     In  short: 

"Cross  is  for  the  true  monk  life  and  the  gate  of  heaven. "' 

— More  evangelically  again  does  John  Staupitz,  the  most 
immediate  precursor  of  the  Reformation  among  all  the 
German  Mystics,  know  how  to  speak  of  the  true  advantage 
and  use  of  the  cross.  In  his  tractate  concerning  the  love  of 
God  he  severely  rebukes  the  self-righteous,  work-holy  en- 
deavour of  those  who  would  by  their  own  virtue  and  good- 
doing  obtain  for  themselves  God's  approval,  for  wishing  "to 
allure  Him  with  their  piety,  as  one  allures  the  hawk  to  the 
bait."  It  is  to  take  away  from  the  compassion  of  God  its  due 
precedence,  and  to  carry  soiled  rags  to  the  market,  in  order  to 
pay  for  gold  with  dirt.  "We  experience  so  much  the  more 
confidence  in  God,  in  proportion  as  we  have  learnt  to  despair 
of  ourselves,  rely  not  at  all  upon  our  own  powers,  but  look  to 
the  cross  of  Christ  alone."  "  Look  to  the  wounds  of  Christ," 
cried  he  once  to  Luther,  assailed  with  bitter  reproaches  of 
conscience;  "behold  His  blood  for  thee  shed;  from  this  the 
atonement  will  shine  forth  to  thee."'" 

Somewhere  at  the  standpoint  of  this  last  and  noblest 
representative  of  the  German  mystical  school  stand  the 
strictly  so-called  Reformers  before  the  Reformation,  the  direct 
prophetic  precursors  of  the  evangelical  principle  of  accept- 
ance. In  the  writings  of  JOHN  Wessel,  in  particular,  the 
salutary  fact  of  the  redeeming  death  upon  the  cross,  as 
laying  the  foundation  of  all  our  hope,  is  with  great  clearness 

'  Vita  boni  monachi  crux  est,  et  dux  paradisi — Dc  i>nif.,\\\.,  c.  56 — one  of  those 
unintended  hexameters  of  which,  as  Hirsch  {Prolegom.  to  a  new  edn.  of  the  Imit. 
Chr.,  1873)  '■'as  shown,  some  are  frequently  to  be  met  with  in  Thomas  a  Kempis, 

-  Ritschl,  as  before,  S.  114  f.  Comp.  Flitt,  Gcxh.  der  roang.  Kirchc  bis  z.  Augs- 
burger  Rcichsfage,  i.  39. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  263 

and  living  conviction  placed  in  the  centre  of  all  soteriolon-ical- 
ethical  contemplations.  "  It  is  in  truth  meet  and  right,"  says 
he,  "  that  we  should  glory  in  the  cross  of  Christ ;  for  from  it 
most  shines  forth  our  whole  Christian  dignity.  Through  it  is 
given  us  a  firm  confidence  and  earnest  of  this  our  dignity,  the 
possession  of  which  has  first  been  made  known,  and  most 
firmly  guaranteed  to  us  by  the  cross."  ^ — Not  quite  so  exclu- 
sively as  with  Wessel  does  the  centre  of  gravity  of  that 
activity  which  makes  salvation  ours  appear  with  Savonarola 
to  be  placed  in  the  objective  grace  which  brings  salvation. 
The  churchly  means  of  grace  and  sanctification,  the  tradi- 
tional forms  and  rites  of  Christian  asceticism,  stand  higher  in 
favour  with  the  Florentine  Dominican  preacher,  than  with  the 
spiritualistically  inclined  Netherlands  precursor  of  a  Zwingli 
and  a  Calvin.  In  his  "  Triumph  of  the  Cross,"  a  work  of 
genius  in  the  form  of  a  comprehensive  apology  for  Christi- 
anity, it  is  preponderantly  the  external  side  of  the  mystery 
of  redemption,  the  victorious  power — constraining  the  mighty 
ones  of  the  earth,  and  putting  to  shame  all  the  philosophers 
— and  the  world-wide  mission  of  the  revelation  of  God  in 
Christ,  to  the  glorifying  of  which  he  directs  his  endeavour. 
He  begins  with  the  representation  of  the  all-prevailino- 
power  and  the  all-obscuring  glory  of  the  Saviour,  under  the 
figure  of  a  triumphal  procession  of  the  ancient  Roman 
type.  The  thorn-crowned  Saviour  rides  gloriously  through 
the  world,  sitting  enthroned  high  upon  a  four-wheeled  chariot, 
conquering  the  world  by  no  other  weapons  than  by  the  sight 
of  the  miracles  He  displays  before  it.  In  His  left  hand  He 
holds  the  cross  (encircled  with  the  glorifying  light  of  the 
Holy  Trinity),  together  with  the  other  instruments  of  His 
passion  ;  in  His  right,  the  book  of  the  two  Testaments.  At 
His  foot  stands  the  cup  with  the  host  upon  it,  around  Him 
vessels  with  water,  wine,  oil,  balm,  and  the  other  symbols  of 
the  sacraments.  A  step  lower  than  Christ  sits  His  mother, 
the  holy  Virgin  ;  beneath  her,  again  a  stage  lower,  are  to  be 
seen  the  bones   of  the   blessed  martyrs,  in    urns   of  gold,  of 

'  Dc  inagnitudinc passiouis,  c.  42.      Comp.  Ritschl,  S.  ii5f. 


264  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

silver,  of  crystal,  or  urns  adorned  with  jewels.  In  front  of  the 
triumphal  chariot  advance  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  of  the 
Old  Covenant,  immediately  before  it  the  apostles  and  evan- 
gelists. It  is  surrounded  by  countless  saints  and  doctors  of 
the  Church,  with  books  in  their  hands  ;  it  is  followed  by  a 
countless  number  of  converts  from  among  the  Jews  and 
Greeks,  among  the  Latins  and  barbarians,  whilst  the  hosts 
of  the  enemies  of  the  cross  opposing  the  procession  are 
resistlessly  scattered.^ — The  highly  poetical  description,  cha- 
racterised by  an  abundant  rhetorical  splendour,  is  perhaps 
indebted  for  some  of  its  characteristic  features  to  the  pro- 
foundly suggestive  painting  of  Christ  by  Fiesole  in  the  San 
Marco  Church,  or  at  least  to  this  among  other  influences  ;^  but 
on  the  other  hand  it  reminds  also  of  many  of  the  most 
brilliant  poetic  word-paintings  in  the  Divina  Commedia,  es- 
pecially of  that  of  the  victorious  chariot  of  the  triumphant 
Church,  which  Dante  beholds  near  to  the  mountain  of  purifi- 
cation, drawn  by  Christ  Himself  in  semblance  of  a  griffin." 
The  more  serious,  mystic-ascetic  aspect  of  the  idea  of  the 
cross  retires  in  this  brilliant  exordium,  as  indeed  throughout 
the  entire  treatise,  very  much  into  the  back-ground.  In  a 
passage  of  the  extended  proem,  where  the  writer  is  speaking 
of  the  historic  testimony  of  Christ  to  His  Divine  power  and 
wisdom,  he  shows  in  an  interesting  manner  in  what  the  folly 
of  the  cross,  the  application  of  one  of  the  most  unimposing, 
and  apparently  unlikely  means  for  the  attainment  of  the 
greatest   and    most   glorious   of  all   aims,    consisted.*     That 

'  Hieron.  Savonarolze  Triumphus  Crucis,  sive  de  veritate  fidei,  lib.  i.,  cap  2  ; 
De  triwnpho  Christi. 

"  Piper,  Einl.  in  d.  momimcnt.  TJieoL,  S.  679. 

^  Comp.  the  author's  address  :  Das  reformator.  Lchrstiick  vom  Kreuzc,  etc. — 
Evang.  K.-Zeitung,  1874,  No.  67,  S.  519. 

''  Triumph.  Criic,  ii. ,  c.  14  :  Qiiodsi  crucis  horror  et  opprobrium  una  cum  sub- 
sannationibus,  sputis,  alapis,  verberibus  ac  tormentis,  qure  moriens  passus  est 
Christus,  considerentur  :  nihil  hac  cruce  magis  tetrum  aut  stultum,  antequam  Chr. 
cruci  figeretur,  poterat  inveniri.  Per  ipsam  vero  Chr.  orbi  terrarum  maximani 
contulit  et  indidit  sapientiam,  ut  omnis  Christian!  professio  docet  et  experientin 
quotidiana  testatur.  Ergo  prtecipua  et  Divina  est  in  Christo  sapientia,  etc.  (p. 
152  s.  ed.,  Lugd.  Bat.  1633.) 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MroDLE    AGES.  265 

which  is  afterwards  said  in  the  apologetic  dogmatic  review  of 
the  most  important  doctrines  of  the  faith — composed  essen- 
tially upon  the  foundation  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  but  reminding 
here  and  there  also  of  Raymond  of  Sebonde — concerning  the 
passion  as  the  greatest  of  the  mysteries  of  the  humanity  of 
Jesus,  is  inadequate,  and  offers  hardly  anything  remarkable. 
That  Savonarola  had  penetrated  into  the  depths  of  the  cross, 
and  knew  how  to  testify  thereof  in  a  powerfully  effective 
manner,  we  learn  from  very  many  sections  of  his  other  writ- 
ings and  sermons,  especially  that  glorious  chapter  of  his  little 
book  "  On  the  Simplicity  of  the  Christian  Life,"  which  sets 
forth  how,  in  the  contemplation  of  the  Crucified,  the  highest 
transports  of  joy  are  made  known  to  the  Christian,  and  the 
view  is  opened  into  the  deepest  wondrous  depth  of  the  Divine 
love,  etc.^  The  prevailing  point  of  view  from  which  he  re- 
gards the  symbol  of  redemption  is  without  doubt  the  one 
expressed  in  the  vision  of  the  victorious  chariot — that  of 
triumphing  over  the  anti-Christian  powers.  He  dwells  mani- 
festly with  greater  preference  upon  the  gloria  criicis  than  upon 
the  ignominia  cntcis.  Even  where  he  treats  of  the  latter,  his 
position  in  regard  to  it  is  not  the  truly  free,  confidingly  trust- 
ing, and  actively  cheerful  one  of  the  evangelical  Christian.  A 
strongly  legal  bent  and  an  ascetic  rigour  not  seldom,  as  in  the 
case  of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  bordering  on  the  diseased,  show 
that  with  him  such  a  complete  subduing  of  the  monkish 
element  by  the  evangelical  Reformed,  as  was  the  case  with 
Luther  and  the  other  fathers  of  the  Reformation  who  had 
proceeded  from  the  bosom  of  the  mendicant  orders,  had  not 
taken  place  ;  although,  by  virtue  of  an  apprehension  of  the 
principle  of  justification  by  faith  which  was  in  its  essence 
sound,  he  approached  very  near  to  them,  and  on  many  points 
reproved  the  degeneracy  of  the  Papal  Church  as  severely  as 
any  of  the  Reformers  before  the  Reformation,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  one  only. 

The  mode  of  apprehending  our  subject  represented  by  the 
last-named  theologians,  especially  by  Thomas  a  Kempis  and 

'  De  simplk.  vita  Christiana,  \.  \^. 


2  66  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Savonarola,  is  typical  for  the  nobler  and  better  Middle  Ages 
in  general  as  compared  with  the  true  form  of  life  of  the  Chris- 
tian community  as  restored  by  the  Reformation.  The  highest 
that  the  development  of  the  life  of  Western  Christendom  was 
able  to  produce  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
was  men  whose  testimony  concerning  Jesus  the  Crucified,  and 
concerning  the  power  of  this  testimony  of  the  cross,  was 
related  to  that  of  Luther  much  as  the  prophetic  testimony 
of  John  the  Baptist  was  related  to  the  Messianic  testimony 
of  Christ.  The  depths  of  the  mystery  of  the  cross  were 
recognised  and  sounded  by  them  ;  but  in  consequence  of  a 
loving  diving  into  those  depths  there  cleave  to  them  wounds 
and  bruises  which  do  not  suffer  their  devout  consciousness 
to  penetrate  to  perfect  liberty  and  serenity  in  Christ.  The 
art  of  dying  with  Christ  they  understand,  but  the  art  of 
rising  again  by  the  help  of  His  Spirit  remains  for  them  more 
or  less  strange  ;  they  experience  abundantly  the  "  fellowship 
of  the  sufferings  "  of  the  Lord,  but  the  "  power  of  His  resur- 
rection "  (Phil.  iii.  lo)  attests  itself  only  imperfectly  in  their 
teaching  and  life.  Between  a  sickly  asceticism  and  an  enthu- 
siastic idolising  of  the  Romish  ecclesiastical  ideal,  with  its 
manifold  externalisation,  and  its  forms  of  degeneracy  partly 
of  a  work-holy,  partly  of  a  superstitious  nature,  does  the 
piety  of  these  times  in  general  oscillate  ceaselessly  to  and 
fro :  an  indecision  which  makes  itself  felt  in  a  characteristic 
manner,  even  in  the  innermost  centre  of  the  Christian-believ- 
ing consciousness,  in  the  position  of  the  heart  towards  the 
crucified  Saviour.  For  sometimes  the  impulse  to  a  loving 
embracing  and  inner  experience  of  the  sensation  of  His 
wounds  manifests  itself  with  such  intense  fervour  and  such 
overpowering  force,  that  the  pious  devotionalist  is  smitten 
as  with  incurable  sickness,  and  remains  incapable  of  truly 
free  and  fruitful  labour  in  the  service  of  the  Lord.  Some- 
times, on  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  the  external  side  of  the 
central  fact  of  salvation,  the  significance  of  the  cross  as  the 
towering,  widely  swaying  banner  of  the  Church  militant,  as 
the  victorious  emblem  of  Constantine,  upon  whicli  they  fix 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    MIDDLE   AGES.  267 

the  eye,  and  by  which  they  are  fired  with  an  enthusiasm 
producing  more  and  more  only  an  external  churchliness, 
but  not  true  Christianity.  The  desire  to  possess  the  cross  at 
the  same  time  in  each  of  these  forms  and  expressions — as  a 
hmnbling  cross  of  suffering,  and  as  a  cross  of  magnificence, 
glittering  zuith  gold  and  precious  stones — prevails  zuith  all  men 
of  this  time  and  tendency,  even  the  most  advanced  and  enlight- 
ened. Where  the  recognition  of  the  irreconcilableness  of 
these  two  forms  of  confession  to  the  Crucified  forces  its  way 
into  decided  clearness,  there  it  is  at  once  over  with  the 
peaceful  remaining  of  the  man  who  has  struggled  into  such 
recognition  any  longer  within  the  Church ;  there  the  neces- 
sity arises,  even  without  taking  the  field  with  iconoclastic 
fanaticism  against  the  cross  as  an  external  object  of  devo- 
tion, as  did  Claude  of  Turin  and  Peter  de  Bruis,  nevertheless, 
for  a  rupture  with  the  existing  Church  communities.  The 
rejection  in  principle  of  the  ecclesiastical  adoration  of  the 
cross  impels,  as  the  example  of  the  Waldenses  shows,  with 
inexorable  force  to  the  formation  of  sects.  Only  a  cautious 
shrinking  from  drawing  the  last  practical  conclusions,  as  is 
the  case  with  Meister  Eckart,  and  in  another  manner  with 
Wessel,  with  Staupitz,  and  some  others  of  these  representa- 
tives of  a  decidedly  spiritual  conformation  of  the  idea  of  the 
cross,  is  able  to  retain  externally  the  bond  with  the  Romish 
Church.  That  neither  the  unnatural  rigours  of  ascetic  self- 
castigation,  nor  the  superstitious  confidence  in  these  or  those 
sensuous  representations  of  the  Crucified  One,  express  the 
true  sense  of  the  following  of  the  cross  demanded  by  Christ; 
that  the  one  and  the  other  of  these  forms  of  devotion  repre- 
sent deviations  from  the  genuine  and  original  form  of  truth 
for  Christian  piety,  this  the  Reformation  first  brought  into 
living  recognition  within  wider  circles,  and,  moreover,  to  a 
permanently  blessing-fraught  practical  effect. 


268  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 


VI. 

Ucfnrmatioit. 

WITH  the  radically  altered  position  assigned  in  the 
Reformation  to  the  principle  on  which  salvation  is 
obtained,  there  stood  in  necessary  connection  an  essentially 
new  conception  and  treatment  of  the  symbol  of  salvation. 
The  nature  of  the  change  and  renewing  which  this  under- 
went we  shall  have  to  designate  as  a  SPIRITUALISING.  For 
the  cultus  rendered  to  it  by  the  Christendom  of  the  Middle 
Ages  was  of  a  one-sidedly  sensuous  character.  Not  merel}'' 
that  which  it  undertook  for  the  testing  of  the  power  of 
the  cross  upon  the  field  of  missions,  for  the  glorifying 
of  its  dignity  and  greatness  by  liturgical  acts,  for  the 
unfolding  of  its  aesthetic  fulness  of  ideas  in  works  of  plastic 
art  and  poetry,  bore  a  preponderantly  selfish,  yea  partly 
superstitious  materialistic  character:  even  its  penetration 
into  the  interior  of  this  profoundly  significant  emblem,  its 
attempts  at  a  more  earnest  experience  and  more  ethico- 
theological  presentation  of  the  idea  of  the  cross,  showed 
themselves  more  or  less  strongly  affected  by  this  tendency 
to  the  externalisation  and  materialising  of  that  which  the 
Divine  Founder  of  Christianity  had  revealed  as  essentially 
spiritual  precepts  and  truths.  It  is  a  severe  judgment 
which  is  passed  upon  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
especially  the  Papal  Church,  but  it  is  not  untrue :  "  The 
more  in  it  the  cross  came  into  use  in  its  manifold  forms  and 
symbols,  so  much  the  more  did   true    evangelical    faith   in 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  269 

Christ  the  Crucified  also  disappear.  The  more  the  cross 
of  Christ  became  outwardly  represented,  the  more  did  it 
become  inwardly  an  offence  and  folly  to  men.  The  Catho- 
lic Church  reminds  us  in  this  respect  of  those  Christians 
who  speak  too  much  of  their  spiritual  experiences,  make 
too  much  ado  about  it,  so  that  at  last  they  talk  themselves 
out,  and  utter  brilliant  sayings  with  very  little  solidity  in 
them."i 

What  was  needed  was  to  oppose  to  this  extreme  exter- 
nalisation,  which  had  befallen  not  only  the  practical  cultic 
handling  of  the  subject,  but  even  the  conception  of  the  cross 
itself,  before  all  things,  a  spiritualising  purification  and  critical 
regeneration  of  its  idea.  In  opposition  to  the  one-sided  and 
exuberant  theologia  glories,  into  which  the  following  of  the 
Crucified  had  degenerated  in  almost  all  the  domains  of  life 
and  of  teaching,  even  that  of  asceticism  not  excepted,  it  was 
necessary  to  set  up  a  new  and  genuine  theologia  cruets, 
drawn  from  the  depths  of  the  life-giving  word  of  God.  And 
this  process  of  renewal  and  spiritualisation  might  not  remain 
a  merely  external  one.  Not  merely  what  Scripture  in  truth 
TEACHES  concerning  the  cross  of  the  Lord,  was  it  necessary 
to  bring  to  the  remembrance  of  the  Church  and  of  all  the 
world :  it  must  also  be  exemplified  in  a  new  and  better  way 
than  before,  how  one  LIVES  under  the  cross  as  scripturally 
apprehended  and  experienced.  It  must  be  alike  theolo- 
gically demonstrated,  and  in  a  practical  Christian  manner 
proved  in  the  life — before  friends  and  foes,  in  presence  of 
the  one-sided  encomiasts  of  that  which  was  ancient  in  the 
Church,  as  in  presence  of  the  alienation  from  all  that  is 
Christian  and  churchly,  making  its  presence  felt  in  wider 
and  ever  wider  circles — in  what  the  true  confession  of  Jesus 
and  His  cross  consists,  and  what  FRUITS  it  produces. 

A  contemplation  under  three  points  of  view  will  serve  to 
make  us  acquainted  with  the  efforts  and  accomplished  results 
of  the  Reformation  Church  and  its  theology  in  our  domain. 

'  Heizog,  T/ieol.  R.  E.,  viii.  60  f.  (SuiDplemeatary  words  of  the  editor  lo  H. 
Merz's  Art.  "Kreuz.") 


2  70  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

We  have  to  see  how  in  the  first  place  the  idea  of  the  cross  is 
traced  back  by  the  testimony  of  the  Reformers  and  their 
theological  successors  to  its  pure  and  evangelical  primary 
form  ;  how  in  the  second  place  this  article  of  the  cross,  puri- 
fied and  spiritualised  in  accordance  with  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  is  maintained  and  brought  into  operation,  as 
well  in  the  sphere  of  worship  as  polemically  against  the 
advocates  of  the  sensuous  cross-cultus  of  the  Romish 
Church  ;  finally,  what  influences  proceed  from  the  new  scrip- 
tural and  more  spiritual  apprehension  of  the  symbol  of  salva- 
tion to  the  domain  of  the  artistic  and  scientific — especially 
the  philosophic  scientific — creation.  Another  attestation  and 
verifying  of  the  idea  of  the  cross  restored  in  the  Reformation, 
namely,  that  in  the  practical  ethical  life  of  the  Church, 
especially  in  its  missionising  (converting  and  educating  of 
peoples)  at  home  and  abroad,  must,  as  forming  that  part  of 
its  task  in  greatest  measure  yet  incomplete,  having  still  to 
realise  the  greater  number  of  its  problems  in  the  future, 
become  the  subject  for  an  independent  examination  in  a 
closing  chapter. 


A.   THE  SPIRITUALISING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  THE  CROSS  BY  THE 
THEOLOGY  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

As  opposed  to  the  tendency  of  the  pre-reformational 
theology,  aiming  either  exclusively  at  the  glorification  of  the 
cross  in  accordance  with  the  Romish  ecclesiastical  tradition, 
or  at  least  at  the  combination  of  such  external  glorification 
with  an  inner  and  purer  cultus  of  the  cross,  LUTHER  declares 
himself  a  "theologian  of  the  cross"  simply,  i.e.,  a  represen- 
tative of  the  theology  which  enters  with  full  decision  into  the 
following  of  the  Saviour  in  the  Biblical  sense.  "The  cross  of 
Christ,"  he  says  in  his  exposition  of  the  sixth  Psalm,  "  is  the 
only  instruction  in  the  word  of  God,  the  absolutely  pure 
theology."  ^     As  early  as  the  time  of  the  Heidelberg  Dispu- 

'  Crux  Christi  unica  est  eruditio  verbonim  Dei,  theologia  sincerissima.  Opcratt. 
in  Psalm,  vi.,  ver.  ii. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  27 1 

tation  (15 18)  he  expressly  gives  in  his  adhesion  to  this 
theologia  cnicis,  in  opposition  to  the  tlieologia  gloyicE  of  the 
RomeHngs,  who,  in  their  high-soaring  endeavours  after  an 
intelHgent  contemplation  of  God,  upon  the  invisible  or  intel- 
lectually apprehended  phase  of  His  existence,  ignore  pre- 
cisely that  which  is  at  hand  and  visible,  by  which  God  has 
revealed  Himself  in  Christ — His  back  {posteriora),  i.e.,  His 
humanity,  weakness,  yea,  the  folly  of  His  cross — and  thereby, 
as  well  as  by  their  aversion  for  the  lowly  following  of  the 
Lord  in  suffering,  prove  themselves  "  enemies  of  the  cross." 
"  The  theologus  glories  calls  the  evil  good,  and  the  good  evil ; 
the  theologus  crucis  calls  things  by  their  true  names,  that  is, 
he  fails  not  to  recognise  the  God  concealed  in  suffering  and 
humiliation,  but  as  a  true  friend  of  the  cross  "  calls  the  cross 
good,  but  the  works  of  the  law  worthless  :  for  by  the  cross  are 
these  works  brought  to  nought,  and  the  old  Adam  is  crucified; 
which  last,  on  the  other  hand,  is  by  works  first  thoroughly 
built  up."  In  short,  only  "in  Christ  the  Crucified  is  found 
true  theology  and  the  right  knowledge  of  God."  ^  In 
harmony  with  this  programme  of  his  course  as  a  Reformer, 
put  forth  at  the  very  outset  of  that  course,  does  he  repeatedly 
declare  himself  in  his  later  writings  and  sermons  against  the 
external  religiously  and  morally  worthless  cross-worship  of 
the  Papists.  He  reproves  the  clergy  in  the  papacy,  who 
"rather  bear  the  cross  of  Christ  in  silver  than  in  the  heart 
and  life."  "  They  have  made  it  in  silver,  since  it  is  thus  good 
to  bear,  and  does  not  pain ;  yea,  it  sells  its  kisses  and  blessings, 
and  has  become  to  them  a  servant  profitable  for  their  plea- 
sure. But  into  the  heart  must  the  dear  cross  not  come,  must 
also  have  nothing  to  do  with  their  life."  These  convenient 
Christians  say,  with  all  the  appearance  of  sanctity,  Christ's 

'  Dispittat.  Heidelberg.,  Thes.  19 — 21;  with  the  explanations  appertaining 
thereto.  (Opp.  ad  Reform,  histor.  spect.,  t.  i.,  p.  399  sq.)  The  expression 
posteriora  Dei,  employed  in  the  twentieth  thesis  (  .  .  .  qui  visibilia  et  posteriora 
Dei  per  passiones  et  crucem  conspecta  intelligit),  is  an  emblematisation  of  the 
revelation  of  God  in  creation,  taken  from  Exod.  xxxiii.  23,  in  accordance  witli  the 
language  of  the  earlier  Mystics,  and  occurs,  e.g.,  with  Tauler,  and  even  with 
Sebast.  Frank  and  others. 


2/2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

cross  is  better  than  their  own,  and  for  this  reason  pass  by 
their  own  cross,  which  they  were  bound  to  take  up  and  bear 
after  Him,  "that  they  might  full  honourably  bear  His,  yea, 
even  reverence  and  worship  it  as  an  idol ! "  ^  To  the  same 
effect  is  also  his  zealous  protestation  against  the  abuse  of 
dedicating  churches  to  the  wood  upon  which  Christ  hung, 
and  showing  to  it  other  outward  signs  of  reverence,  in  gold, 
silver,  and  precious  stones.  "  Now  that  one  should  wish  to 
trample  the  sacred  cross  under  foot  is  also  not  good.  That 
one  should  revere  it  is  indeed  excellent ;  but  that  one  should 
fall  down  before  it,  dedicate  churches  to  it,  make  the  soul's 
salvation  dependent  upon  it,  this  is  not  well."^  "The 
worldly  wise,"  it  is  said  in  another  place,  "  call  it  bearing  the 
cross  when  one  encloses  a  fragment  of  the  holy  cross  in  a 
golden  cross  or  monstrance,  and  when  the  priest  puts  on  a 
cope,  puts  a  stole  round  his  neck,  and  then  carries  the  same 
silver  or  golden  cross  about  the  church,  gives  it  to  the  people 
to  kiss,  that  they  may  offer  pennies.  O  the  folly !  For  the 
sake  of  avoiding  such  jugglery  and  idolatrous  error  I  would 
burn  the  holy  cross  to  powder,  if  I  had  a  piece  of  it.  For 
Christ  says  not  (Matt.  x.  38),  Take  my  cross !  but,  thy 
cross,  and  bear  it ;  let  my  cross  be,  on  which  I  have  suffered 
much  shame.     See  that  thou  also  thus  suffer  on  thine,  which 

is  laid  upon  thee Thus  thou  hast  what  it  is  to  bear  thy 

cross,  to  lift  up  the  cross  of  Christ,  or  find  the  same.  A  thing 
which  consists  not  in  offering,  kissing,  or  frequenting  the  holy 
cross,  but  in  everywhere  with  patience  receiving  and  enduring 
unjust  treatment."  ^ 

That  Luther's  rejection  of  the  outward  cross-worship  of 
ecclesiastical  tradition  was  no  such  radical  and  fanatical  one 
that  he  would  not  have  willingly  retained  certain  more  harm- 
less and  simple  uses  of  the  same,  is  well  known.     It  will 
besides  be  further  referred  to  below,  in  treating  more  specially 

'  Pred.  am  Id.  Drcikonigstiv^c.     Erlangen  edn.,  Bd.  x.,  S.  397. 
-  Prcd.  am  Tage  dcr  Krcitzdrhebiing.     Bd.  xv. ,  S.  455  f. 

^  Sermon  vom  Krcnz  Jtnd  Leiden  (held  1522),  Bd.  xx.,  S.  318  f . ;  comp.  also  the 
sermon  under  the  same  title  belonging  to  the  year  1531.     Bd.  xvii.,  S.  40  ff. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  2/3 

of  the  practices  In  this  respect  observed   in  worship  by  the 
Protestants  and  their  opponents.     Here  we  have  more  imme- 
diately to   complete   the   series   of  those  of  his  utterances 
which  belong  to  the  theological  development  of  the  article 
of  the  cross  in  its  dogmatic  and  ethical  aspect. — There  are 
tii'O  Jcinds  or  stages  of  the  eross,  thus  does  he  frequently  teach, 
namely,  the  ordinary  suffering  imposed  by  the  Lord  upon 
men,  which  does  not  deserve  the  name  of  a  suffering  for 
Christ's  sake,  or  cross  in  the  narrower  sense  ;  and  the  true 
cross,  severe  suffering  on  account  of  the  testimony  of  Christ, 
combined  with  reproach  in  the  sight  of  the  world,  yea,  with 
apparent  abandonment  by  God.     "  By  the  cross  of  Christ." 
he  continues  in  the  sermon  last  cited,  "you  are  not  to  under- 
stand this  or  that  wood  on  which  Christ  hung  ;  but  the  cross 
of  Christ  is  the  reproach  and  great  ignominy  which  Christ 
innocent  endured.     If  I  lie  in  bed  and  am  sick,  or  if  one  on 
account  of  his  transgression  is  put  to  death  by  fire,  water,  or 
sword,  this  is  not  the  cross  of  Christ ;  but  infamy  and  perse- 
cution for  righteousness'  sake  is  the  cross  of  Christ.     Therefore 
must  true  Christians  be  branded  as  heretics,  as  transgressors, 
they  must  be  condemned,  despised,  and  judged  of  every  one, 
so    as  to   become   a   dishclout   to   every  one ;    even  as  the 
prophet  speaks  in  Ps.  xl.  i8  [17],  'I  am  a  solitary  one  and 
utterly  poor,'^  as  though  he  would  say.  The  whole  world  has 
forsaken  me,  and  I  stand  here  all  alone,  regarded  by  no  man, 
but  rather  by  every  one  despised  and  contemned."     Similarly 
in  another  place  :'-  "  That  is  also  a  cross,  if  I  stand  and  suffer, 
and  have  none  to  console  me ;  but  that  is  after  all  only  a 
poor  cross.     But  if  I  stand  and  suffer,  and  all  people  sing- 
thereat,  and  dance,  and  say.  That  was  well  deserved,  yea,  he 
deserved  much  more — as  was  done  to  the  apostles  :  this  is 
the  right  and  true  cross,  thus  to  be  forsaken,  both  by  men 
and  by  God  ;   that  is  to  find   the  true  cross ;    and  when  it 
is  now  found,  one  must  also  exalt  it,  not  as  the  Emperor 
Heraclius  or  as  the  stationists,  but  by  thanking  and  praising 

'   Ich  bin  ein  einziger  uud  ganz  arm. 

2  Prcd.  am  Ta^c  clr  Krcuzcrh.,  Bd.  xv.,  S.  4C0  f. 

18 


274  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

God  on  account  of  it,  etc So  also  our  cross,  while  we 

still  remain  therein,  is  indeed  more  infamous  than  the  wheel 
or  gallows ;  but  when  one  has  thus  in  faith  borne  it,  it 
becomes  so  delicious  as  Christ's  cross  now  is ;  and  as  His  is 
now  manifest,  so  will  ours  also  become  manifest."^ — Especially 
in  this  latter  form — one  of  particular  severity  and  heaviness, 
as  a  testimony  by  suffering  for  Jesus'  sake,  imposed  by  God 
Himself,  and  accompanied  by  infamy  in  the  sight  of  all  the 
■world — is  the  cross  a  characteristic  badge  and  NECESSARY 
ATTRIBUTE  of  Christianity,  in  Christians  as  a  whole  and  as 
individuals.  It  is  the  "sign  and  watchword  of  all  Christians." 
It  is  for  us  all  "  a  certain  mark  and  sign  that  we  belong  to 
the  kingdom  of  God."  No  one  who  will  belong  to  this 
kingdom  may  be  ashamed  of  it :  all  who  will  be  Christians 
must  bear  this  burden  imposed  upon  them  by  Christ. 
"  When  the  kingdom  of  Christ  approaches,  the  cross  follows 
immediately  upon  it :  God's  anger  and  the  cross  are  for  us 
an  (indispensable)  exercise  in  faith." '-^  The  whole  life  of  the 
Christian  is  indeed  ''nothing  else  but  a  life  of  faith,  of  love, 
and  of  the  holy  cross — a  walk  wherein  one  ever  advances 
from  faith  to  faith,  from  love  to  love,  from  patience  to 
patience,  and  from  cross  to  cross." ^  "Therefore  does  also 
the  Euangelion  bear  its  device,  which  Paul  gives  to  it,  i  Cor. 
i.  i8  :  Ve}-b?iin  criicis,  a  word  of  the  cross.  He  who  will  not 
have  the  cross  must  also  be  without  the  word.  It  is  true, 
nothing  more  lovely  were  to  be  found  in  heaven  or  on  earth 
than  the  word  without  a  cross.  But  it  would  not  remain 
long  to  our  humour,  since  nature  is  not  able  to  bear  for  long 
together  mere  pleasure  and  delight:  as  the  saying  is,  'Man 
can  endure  everything  except  good  fortune,' "  etc.*  In  general, 
"  where  God's  word  is  preached,  accepted,  or  believed,  and 
brings  forth  fruit,  there  the  dear  holy  cross  also  cannot  long 
be  a-wanting ;  pray  let  no  one  think  that  he  will  have  peace, 

'  Simihar  also  are  his  observations  on  Gal.  v.  li,  I2  {Co/inii.  viaj,  in  Ep,  ad 
GalaL'). 

^    U-^orks,  Bd.  XV.  l86  ;  vi.  265  f.,  427  f. ;  xx.  43,  317  f.  ;  xxxviii.  14. 

^  Sermon  on  penitence  and  the  sacrament,  {Kiir/ieiiposiille,  Bd.  xi.  171.) 

■*  "To  the  Christians  at  Aiigspurg,"  (Letters  of  the  year  1523,  Bd,  liii.  226.) 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  275 

but  rather  that  he  must  stake  everything  that  he  has  0:1 
earth  :  goods  and  honour,  house  and  home,  wife  and  child, 
body  and  life."^ — Thus  does  the  cross  accordingly  belong  to 
the  number  of  the  essential  and  necessary  marks  of  true 
Christians.  The  treatise,  "Von  deii  Conciliis  und  Kirchen  " 
(1539),  mentions  expressly  as  a  seventh  and  last  sign  (or 
sacrament  in  the  wider  sense)  of  the  "  Christianly  holy 
people,"  in  addition  to  the  word  of  God,  baptism,  the  supper, 
keys,  spiritual  office  of  preaching  and  prayer;  also,  "the 
salutary  mystery  (Heilthum)^  of  the  sacred  cross,  that  it 
(this  people)  must  inwardly  bewail  all  affliction  and  perse- 
cution, every  kind  of  assault  and  evil  (as  the  petition  of  the 
Lord's  prayer  is),  from  the  devil,  world,  and  flesh ;  must  be 
exposed,  terrified,  outwardly  poor,  despised,  sick,  weak, 
suffering  ;  .  .  .  .  and  the  cause  thereof  must  alone  be  this, 
that  it  cleaves  firmly  to  Christ  and  the  word  of  God,  and  thus 
also  for  Christ's  sake  suffers  (Matt.  v.  10)."^ 

And  not  only  does  Luther  speak  often  and  much  of  the 
necessity  of  the  cross  for  all  Christians  ;  he  expresses  himself 
also  equally  often  and  at  large  on  its  object  and  its  salutary 
fruit. — As  the  OBJECT  of  the  cross  he  brings  into  prominence 
in  the  first  place  the  advancement  of  the  individual  in  the  life 
of  faith,  and  in  loving  devotion  of  himself  to  the  Christian 
fellowship :  "  that  it  may  impel  and  constrain  us  unto 
believing,  and  extending  the  hand  the  one  to  the  other." 
Further:  "that  our  faith  become  approved  and  manifest  for 
the  world,  that  other  people  also  be  stirred  up  to  believe,  and 
we  also  be  lauded  and  praised."  Further  :  "  to  this  end  also 
is  the  holy  cross  good,  that  one  thereby  quell  sin  ;  when  it 
thus  whispers  to  thee,  the  enticement  loses  its  power  over 
thee,  be  it  envy,  hatred,  anger,  or  other  sin.  To  this  end  has 
God  imposed  upon  us  the  holy  cross,  that  it  may  impel  and 
constrain  us  to  flee  to  Christ,  and  to  seek  grace  and  help  in 

*   Catech.  niaj.,  third  chapter,  p.  473,  65  M. 
-  Heilthitm  —  %z\wSs!>xz  niysterium. 

^  Bd.  XXV.  375. — Of  the  indispensable  necessity  of  the  cross  for  the  Church, 
he  treats  further  in  Com  in.  t/icij.  in  Ep.  ad  Gal.,  t.  iii.,  p.  60  s'^^. 


2/6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

riim."^ — As  the  MEANS  whereby  the  cross  attains  to  its  main 
end  in  the  quelling  of  sin,  does  the  Commentary  on  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians  adduce  faith,  hope,  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit — in  general,  the  whole  armour  of  God.  "One 
knows  the  mode  of  this  crucifixion :  the  nails,  which  through 
the  grace  of  God  penetrate  deeply,  and  hinder  the  flesh  from 
following  its  desires  and  lusts,  are  the  word  of  God,  Eccles. 
xii.  II,"  etc.^  And  this  cross  ought  to  hurt  the  old  man; 
it  is  meet  that  it  should  painfully  wound  him,  in  order  to 
withdraw  him  from  the  service  of  sin.  "  The  cross  ought  to 
be  so  constituted  as  to  give  pain ;  ought  not  to  be  self-chosen 
(as  the  Anabaptists  and  all  work-righteous  ones  teach),  but  to 

be  laid  upon  us For  the  devil,  a  mighty,  evil,  crafty 

spirit,  hates  the  children  of  God.  In  addition  to  this,  the 
cross  serves  for  the  exercise  of  faith,  for  the  correction  of  the 
word  ;  item,  to  quell  the  remaining  sin  and  pride.  Yea,  a 
Christian  can  just  as  little  dispense  with  the  cross  as  with 
food  and  drink." ^  Even  from  that  which  has  been  already 
cited,  it  is  evident  in  what  the  salutary  FRUIT  and  effect  of 
the  cross  consists.  "  God  casts  us  into  the  midst  of  the  fire 
of  assaults,  sufferings,  and  tribulations,  by  which  we  are  to 
our  very  end  cleansed  and  proved ;  in  order  that  thus  not 
only  sin  should  be  the  more  mortified  the  longer  we  live,  but 
also  that  faith  might  become  approved  and  increase,  that  we 
become  from  day  to  day  more  certain  of  our  cause,  grow  in 
the  understanding  of  Divine  wisdom  and  knowledge,  that 
Scripture  becomes  ever  brighter  and  clearer  for  us,  in  order  so 
much  the  more  powerfully  to  admonish  our  own,  and  to 
•reprove  the  gainsayers,  by  wholesome  doctrine."^  Next  to 
these  main  effects,  consisting  in  the  preservation  from  sins, 
approvedness  in  the  faith,  upholding  in  the  spirit  of  prayer, 
and  advancement  in  Christian  experience  and  wisdom,  it  is 


'  Bd.  li.  343,  465  ;  Hi.  160. 

-  Po7nm.  in   Gal.,  anno    15 19,   (Vol.  xxiii.  of  liis  Latin  works,)  p.   441  sq.  ; 
Coinm.  maj.  (ib.  p.  55.) 

'  Fcinc  chr.  Gcdankcn  da- alien  hi.  Vlittr,  etc.,  1530.     (Ixiv,  298-300.) 
<  On  I  Pet.  i.  7.     (Second  Exposition,  Bd.  Hi.  24.) 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  277 

specially  also  the  consolation  experienced  in  suffering  with 
Christ,  the  blissful  nature  of  a  communion  of  sufferings  with 
the  Lord,  which  is  brought  forward  as  the  fruit  and  reward 
of  patient  following  of  the  cross.  "  The  cross  of  Christ 
consists  indeed  in  the  afflictions  which  the  Church  endures 
for  Chrisfs  sake.  He  who  touches  her  touches  the  apple  of 
Christ's  eye ;  and  of  a  truth  the  head  experiences  more 
acutely  and  more  quickly  that  which  is  done  to  it,  than  do 
the  members.  So  then  does  Christ,  our  Head,  when  we 
suffer  as  His  body,  make  these  our  afflictions  His  own,  and 
suffers  with  us.'"^  "  Christ  sanctifies  by  His  contact  all 
sufferings  and  tribulatioas  of  His  believers :  he  who  does  not 
suffer,  clearly  shows  that  he  does  not  believe,  and  that  Christ 
has  not  made  over  to  him  His  sufferings.  If,  however,  any 
man  will  not  bear  the  cross  which  God  imposes  on  him,  no 
one  will  compel  him — he  may  certainly  go  and  deny  Christ ; 
yet  let  him  in  doing  so  know  that  he  has  no  fellowship  with 
Christ,  nor  part  in  any  one  of  His  blessings."^ 

We  have  been  more  liberal  comparatively  in  the  quotation 
of  these  sayings  of  Luther  having  reference  to  the  article  of 
the  cross,  than  w'e  felt  called  to  be  in  the  contemplation  of 
his  spiritual  predecessors  ;  for  the  very  point  here  under  ex- 
ammation  is  wont  as  a  rule  to  receive  but  slight  notice,  even 
in  the  more  comprehensive  presentations  of  the  doctrinal 
characteristics  of  the  great  Reformer.  This  point  has,  for  in- 
stance, been  only  incidentally  touched  upon  here  and  there, 
not  examined  more  at  length,  by  Harnack  and  Kostlin  in  their 
works  on  Luther's  theology,  as  likewise  by  Luthardt  in  hi-s 
tractate  on  the  ethics  of  Luther."     Of  the  declarations  too  of 


'  Ergo  crux  Christi  generaliter  sigiiificat  unlversas  Ecclesice  afflictiones,  quas 
propter  Christum  patitur  (Act.  ix.  4).  Qui  autem  illam  tangit,  tangit  pupillam 
oculi  sui.     Sensus  subtilior  et  velocior  est  in  capite,  quam  in  reliquis  membris 

corporis Sic  Christus,   caput  nostrum,   afflictiones  nostras   suas  facit,  et 

patitur,  cum  nos,  corpus  ipsius,  patimur, — Comm.  Maj.  in  Gal.  vi.  14. 

^  Peine  chr.  Gcdanken.  Ixiv.  299.  Comp.  also  Bd.  iii.  412  f.:  viii.  1000  f. ; 
XV.  336  f. 

^  Occasional  allusions  of  this  nature,  e.g.,  in  Kostlin,  Liitho^s  Theologii,  ii. 
545  ;  in  Luthardt,  Die  Etliik  Litt/icr's  in  i/tre>/i  Grnnih/i^vn  (Leipzig  1867),  '^^ 


2/8  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Melancthon  which  have  reference  to  this  subject,  which,  as 
regards  their  essential  import,  are  at  least  closely  akin  to  those 
of  Luther,  it  cannot  be  said  that  in  modern  presentations  of 
the  history  of  dogmas  or  of  the  history  of  ethics  they  have 
met  with  the  notice  or  appreciation  due  to  them.  Melanc- 
thon devotes  a  merited  attention  to  the  doctrine  of  the  cross 
— as  in  general  in  pretty  numerous  passages  of  his  writings, 
so  in  particular  in  those  masterpieces  which,  as  being  of  a 
specially  classical  character  and  historic  importance,  have  be- 
come doctrinal  standards  in  his  Church.  As  he  had  already, 
in  his  "  Unterricht  der  Visitatoren  an  die  Pfarrherren  "  (1528), 
brought  into  relief  the  importance  of  this  article  by  the 
setting  apart  of  a  special  chapter,  "  Von  Triibsal,"  to  the  con- 
sideration of  this  subject,  so  does  he  in  the  twenty-sixth 
article  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  enumerate,  among  those 
doctrines  which,  in  opposition  to  the  externalisms  and  refine- 
ments of  the  scholastic  doctrinal  tradition,  are  specially 
salutary  and  necessary,  immediately  after  the  article  of  faith 
that  of  the  cross.^  He  there  emphatically  declares,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  reproach  of  the  adherents  of  Rome,  to  wit,  that 
the  Protestants,  like  Jovinian  of  old,  denied  the  necessity  for 
serious  discipline  and  crucifixion  of  the  flesh :  the  matter 
will  "  be  seen  from  their  writings  to  be  very  different.  For 
they  have  always  taught  concerning  the  holy  cross,  that 
Christians  ought  to  suffer  ;  and  this  is  a  true,  earnest,  and  not 
feigned  mortification."  ^  The  same  thought  occurs  again  in 
the  corresponding  place  of  the  apology  for  the  Augsburg 
Confession,^  where  moreover  the  necessity  for  a  patient  bear- 

57.— An  old  tractate  of  Sidel,  Trostliche  Abhandhmg  Lutlicrs  voni  Leiden  der 
CInisteii  (Halle,  1725),  not  accessible  to  us,  appears  substantially  to  consist  only  of 
\\\o%&  Feinc  cJu:  Gcdaiihen  of  the  year  1530.  Similar  to  the  above  presentation,- 
though  not  so  complete,  is  the  treatment  of  the  subject  in  the  author's  address 
delivered  at  Berlin  in  1874,  "Das  reformatorische 'LehrstUck  vom  Kreuze,"  etc. 
(^F.vajig.  K.-Zeittmg,  1874,  No.  47  fF.) 

'  Latin  text :  de  criice ;  Germ,  text :   "vom  Trost  in  hohen  Anfechtungen."  ' 
-  Semper  enim  docuemnt  de  cruce,  quod  christianos  oporteat  tolerare  afiflic- 
tiones.     Hrec   est   vera,  seria  et   nom  simulata  mortificatio,  variis  afflictionibus 
exerceri  et  crucifigi  cum  Christo,     (p.  57,  31  M.  ;  cf.  p.  56,  15.) 
^  Art.  XV.  :  Dc  traditioiiilnis  /luvianis,  p.  213,  45  M. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  2/9 

ing  of  the  cross  and  of  affliction  is  mentioned  amongst  the 
Christian  duties  of  the  first  rank,  such  as  the  fear  of  God,  love, 
faith,  confiding  in  the  Lord  ;  where  the  Church  is  designated 
as  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  of  His  quickening  Spirit,  either 
manifest  or  "  hidden  under  the  cross ;  "  where  cross  and 
affliction  (similarly  as  often  in  the  writings  of  Luther)  are  re- 
presented as  the  indispensable  mark  of  the  Christian,  as  a 
burden  of  necessity  to  be  borne  ;  from  which,  so  certainly  as 
God  imposes  it,  "  the  power  of  keys  can  set  no  one  free  or 
quit.  Niemanden  frei,  los  absolviren  kann."^  That  enumera- 
tion too  of  the  cross  among  the  sacraments  in  the  wider  sense, 
which  we  observed  above  in  Luther's  treatise  "  Von  den 
Conciliis  und  Kirchen,"  one  meets  already  in  Melancthon's 
Apology.  In  addition  to  prayer  and  alms,  cross  and  affliction 
are  instanced  as  acts  or  experiences  of  the  Christian,  which, 
because  they  "  also  have  God's  promise,"  might  be  reckoned 
among  the  sacraments.  Although,  according  to  another 
passage  of  the  same  Confession,  they  "  do  not  merit  re- 
conciliation to  God,  but  are  thank-offerings,  when  those 
who  are  reconciled  (versuhnet)  bear  and  endure  such  afflic- 
tions. "  ^ 

In  a  connected  manner,  and  even  to  a  certain  extent  in 
systematic  order,  does  Melancthon  develop  the  theses  relating 
to  this  subject  in  the  chapter  of  his  great  dogmatic  work 
which  bears,  in  the  editions  of  the  second  epoch  of  this  work, 
(those  from  1535,)  the  title:  "Of  afflictions,  or  the  bearing  of 
the  cross;"  ^  in  those  of  the  third  epoch  (from  1543),  "Of" 
sufferings  and  cross."  '^  The  motive  for  the  insertion  of  this 
loc/is  he  expressly  denotes  as  existing  in  the  circumstance 
already  mentioned  by  him  on  the  occasion  of  his  treating  of 
the  article  of  the  Church,  namely,  that  the  Church  of  Christ 
is  essentially  of  a  spiritual  nature,  as  well  as  the  statement  in 
particular  "  that  the  Church  in  this  life  is  subject  to  the  cross 

'  Art.  iii.,  p.  117,  46  ;  Art.  iv.,  p.  155,  18  ;  Art.  vii.,  p.   196,  57  ;  197,  Sg^qi- 
^  Art.  viii.,  p.  204,  16  ;  Art.  xxiv.,  p.  263,  67. 
^  De  afflictionibus  seu  de  cruce  tolerancla. 
■*  De  calamitatibus  et  cruce. 


2vS0  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

and  afflictions."  ^  This  fact  of  the  subjection  of  the  Church 
to  the  cross  forms  accordingly  the  proper  theme  of  which 
the  whole  section  treats.  And  indeed  there  are  in  the  yet 
briefer  elaboration  of  the  locus,  as  it  is  presented  in  the 
editions  of  the  second  epoch,  in  the  main  only  four  doctrines, 
which  he  briefly  expounds  with  a  view  to  rendering  apparent 
the  necessity  and  the  Divine  aim  in  the  fact  spoken  of 

1.  We  do  not  suffer  accidentally,  but  in  accordance  with 
God's  design,  or  at  least  permission. 

2.  God  does  not  impose  His  sufferings  upon  us  in  order  to 
destroy  us,  but  in  order  to  call  us  to  repentance  ;  so  that 
afllictions  are,  properly  speaking,  signs  of  His  favour  and 
compassion. 

3.  Instead  of  displaying  ill-humour  or  grief,  the  suffering 
Church  has  to  exercise  herself  in  obedience  and  patient 
submission  to  the  will  of  God  ;  and  this  for  the  following 
reasons  : — 

(o)  On  account  of  the  sin   still  present  in  the  flesh  of 

her  members  ; 
{/j)  Because  she  must  in  suffering  become  conformed  to 

Christ,  her  head  ; 
(c)  Because  sufferings  for  Christ's   sake   form    the  true 

spiritual  sacrifices  of  praise,  which  God  desires. 

4.  A  main  object,  for  the  sake  of 'which  God  sends  us 
sufferings,  is  that  of  affording  us  a  stimulus  to  exercise  in 
faith  and  prayer, — with  which  the  training  to  sincere  patience, 
steadfastness,  meekness,  resignation,  etc.,  as  a  further  aim  in 
the  Divine  ordaining  of  suffering,  is  immediately  connected.^ 

In  an  enlarged  form  does  our  article  appear  in  the  Loci  of 
the  third  epoch,  where  it  immediately  precedes,  and  is  pre- 
paratory to,  the  chapter  which  treats  of  prayer.  Those  four 
Divine  aims  or  designs  in  the  ordaining  of  cross  and  afflictions 
are  here  also  again  enumerated,  though  in  a  somewhat  altered 


'  Cum  dictnm  sitjEcclesiam  in  hac  vita  siibiectam  esse  cnici  et  afflictionibus, 
\i.-um  est  adiicere  qiunedam  de  hoc  loco,  etc.  (Led  comm,  secundre  retatis,  p. 
528  sqq.     0pp.  ed.  Bretschn.,  t.  xxi.) 

-  L.c,  pp.  528-534. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  28 1 

order  of  succession  (in  such  wise  that  No.  4  appears  trans- 
posed before  No.  3),  and  moreover  augmented  by  a  new 
element  :  the  reference  to  the  fact  that  God,  precisely  when 
He  most  severely  chastens,  promises  His  help  as  immediately 
at  hand,  together  with  alleviation  and  deliverance  from  the 
ill.  This  point  appears  placed  in  the  midst  of  the  others,  so 
that  the  whole  pentade  of  Divine  aims  in  suffering  now  forms 
the  succession:  i.  no  accident,  etc.;  2.  call  to  repentance; 
3.  nearness  of  the  Divine  help  under  the  heaviest  cross  ;  4.  ex- 
ercise calling  forth  faith  and  prayer ;  5.  exercise  in  patience 
and  lowly  obedience. — This  pentade  of  Divine  salutary  aims, 
in  vv'hich  the  Christian  is  able  to  recognise  equally  many 
grounds  of  consolation  or  means  of  blessing  {i-cincdia  calanii- 
iaiiim),  is  preceded  by  a  decade  of  grounds  for  the  pheno- 
menon that  the  Church  is  unquestionably  subject  far  more 
than  the  children  of  this  world  to  suffering  and  affliction. 
This  fact,  so  incomprehensible  for  the  children  of  the  world, 
and  for  the  most  part  employed  by  those  philosophers  who 
fall  back  only  upon  earthly  knowledge  and  wisdom  ^  for 
deducing  the  most  perverted  consequences,  is  explained,  ac- 
cording to  Melancthon,  on  the  following  ten  grounds  : — 

1.  The  children  of  God  have  their  part  like  others  in  the 
general  depravity  of  our  race. 

2.  It  is  meet  that  the  chastisements  and  judgments  of  God 
should  begin  with  the  members  of  His  household. 

3.  The  devil  directs  his  assaults  particularly  and  especially 
against  them. 

4.  Those  whom  God  loves  He  chastens  above  others. 

5.  The  sufferings  of  the  pious  have  to  serve  as  salutary 
exemplifications  of  doctrine  for  others. 

6.  The  same  are  at  the  same  time  indirect  proofs  for  a 
retribution  in  a  better  state  of  existence,  pledges  for  a 
reward  beyond  the  grave. 

7.  They  serve  for  bringing  into  conformity  with  Christ, 
and  with  the  sufferings  of  Christ. 

'  The  representatives  of  that  materialistic  wisdom,  quro  defigit  oculos  in  matc- 
riam,  nee  de  hominlbus  aliter  quam  de  jDomis  aut  violis  aut  rosis  cogitat. 


2  82  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

8.  They  serve,  even  where  they  are  not  chastisements  for 
known  and  definite  sins,  for  the  purging  away  of  such  im- 
perfections— still  cleaving  to  the  saints — as  a  false  sense  of 
security,  impure  thoughts  in  the  heart,  vain  self-reflection, 
doubts,  etc. 

9.  They  are  designed  to  make  manifest  that  saints  serve 
God  out  of  pure  obedience  for  His  own  sake. 

10.  They  are  intended  to  shov/  that  not  carnal  might  and 
power,  but  the  invisible  strength  of  Christ,  which  is  mighty 
in  the  weak,  rules  the  Church. 

A  third  scheme,  devoted  to  the  classification  of  sufferings 
generally,  according  to  their  nature  and  aim,  concludes  the 
whole  instructive  treatise.  All  suffering  of  men  is  reducible 
to  four  kinds,  develops  itself  in  the  four  species,  which  differ 
from  each  other  in  degree  : 

1.  PiinisJuncnts    properly   so    called,    merited    corrections, 

2.  Trials,  or  sufferings  of  a  testing  character,  hoKLfiaa-Lai, — 
serving  for  the  calling  into  exercise  of  faith  and  zeal  for 
prayer,  in  time  of  prosperity ;  but  also  for  the  advance- 
ment of  virtue,  watchfulness,  courage,  etc.,  in  adversity. 

3.  Sufferings  for  a  testimony,  ixaprvpiov,  confessio,  —  by 
means  of  which  no  sin  whatever  finds  expiation,  but,  as  in 
the  case  of  Abel,  Isaac,  Jeremiah,  the  prophets  who  were 
put  to  death  innocent,  Paul,  and  other  apostles,  etc.,  only 
the  certainty  of  Divine  truth  is  attested  and  the  higher  value 
of  the  "life  beyond,"  as  compared  with  the  earthly  life  here 
staked  against  it,  is  made  manifest.^ 

4.  Redemptive  sufferings,  \vTpov, — for  the  expiatory  bear- 
ing of  the  punishment  incurred  by  a  sinful  humanity ;  a  kind 
of  suffering  undertaken  solely  and  alone  by  Christ,  the  sinless 

'  For  which  expression  some  of  the  later  dogmatists  among  the  Lutherans,  e.g., 
Hebenstreit,  Baier,  and  Holiaz,  of  tlie  Reformed  Coccejus,  Heidegger,  prefer 
employing  the  synonymous  Traldeiau  (Comp.  Ritschl,  Ze/ir.  z'.  d.  RccJitfcrtig., 
etc.,  iii.  33.) 

^  .  .  .  .  testimonia,  quibus  ostendunt  se,  cum  veritatem  vitx  anteferunt,  serio 
sic  sentire  de  Deo,  ut  decent  ac  vere  statuere  nequaquam  fabulosam  esse  doctrinam 
evangelii ;  testantur  item  restare  aliam  vitam  ct  aliud  judicium  post  hanc  vitam. 
(P-  954-) 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  283 

Son  of  God  and  Son  of  man,  for  the  enduring  of  which  no 
ordinary  sinful  child  of  man  is  able. 

Even  apart  from  this  scale  of  the  kinds  of  suffering  of  the 
cross,  the  introduction  of  which  into  the  dogmatic-ethic 
doctrinal  tradition  of  our  (Lutheran)  Church  belongs  in 
itself  to  the  meritorious  services  of  the  gifted  Pra;ceptor 
Germanice,  the  reasonings  of  the  Locus  to  which  we  refer 
present  not  a  little  that  is  instructive  and  worthy  of  careful 
attention.  Thus,  among  other  things,  an  admirable  descrip- 
tion of  the  essential  character  of  Christian  patience,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  bearing  of  heathen  heroes  and  philosophers  under 
calamity,  a  bearing  wanting  in  all  true  steadfastness.  So 
also  an  exposition,  worthy  of  all  consideration,  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  we  have  to  suffer  in  the  service  of  the  Church, 
and  for  the  Church :  free  from  selfish  zeal,  hatred,  or  envy ; 
standing  forth  for  the  pure  doctrine  with  dignified  serious- 
ness and  calm  spirit,  etc.^ — The  Lutheran  dogmatists  of  the 
sixteenth  and  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  who  after 
Melancthon's  example  retain  our  article  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  Church's  system  of  doctrine,  show  themselves  entirely 
dependent  on  him.  They  alter  but  little,  and  nothing  that 
is  essential,  in  the  mode  of  treatment  introduced  by  him  ;  any 
instances  of  perfecting  that  which  was  contributed  by  him 
they  are  not  able  to  present.  The  theological  "  Examen," 
or  Compendium,  composed  at  Helmstadt  by  TiLEMAN 
Hesshusius,  the  well-known  controversialist,  places  the 
gradation  of  the  different  kinds  of  sufferings  at  the  head  of 
the  chapter  "von  Kreuz  und  Trost;"  and  reduces  them  at 
the  same  time — in  accordance  with  the  method  of  abbre- 
viating and  excerpting  pursued  throughout — from  a  tetrade 
to  a  triad,  inasmuch  as  he  comprehends  in  one  Nos.  2  and  3 
the  sufferings  of  the  nature  of  a  trial  and  the  sufferings  for 
a  testimony.-     Leonhard  Hutter's  Loci  Covnnuncs  place 

'  Non  dimicandum  est  de  privatis  affectibus,  non  prjetexendK  publicoj  causcc 
odiis  privatis  et  livori,  sed  verce  et  necessarian  doctrinx  puritas  graviter  et  sedatis 
animis  defendenda  est.   (p.  952.) 

Tilem.  Hesshusii  Examen  theologicum,  continens  proecipuos  locos  doctrinal 
Christiana'.     Ilelmst.  15S7.  (p.  43S.  Loc.  xxi. :  Dc  cnicc  d  consolationc.) 


284  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

ill  like  manner  the  main  kinds  of  suffering  first,  but  with  the 
retaining  of  Melancthon's  number  of  four.  On  the  nature 
and  significance  of  the  sufferings  as  a  trial,  as  also  of  the 
sufferings  for  a  testimony,  they  discourse  pretty  fully,  and 
offer  many  useful  contributions  in  addition  ;  e.^-.,  the  proof 
that  the  so-called  trials  are  never  merely  and  simply  trials, 
but  also  in  some  way  chastisements  for  sin ;  in  like  manner 
do  they  afford  an  instructive  disquisition  concerning  true 
and  false  witnessings  by  suffering,  and  especially  the  glit- 
tering semblance  of  martyrdom  on  the  part  of  schismatics 
and  heretics.  The  examination  of  the  causes  of  sufferings 
appears  in  Hiitter  enlarged  by  all  sorts  of  polemic  and  scho- 
lastic additions  ;  it  begins  with  the  refutation  of  the  errors 
advanced  by  the  Epicurasans,  Stoics,  Calvinists,  Astrologists, 
Apocalyptists,  the  stricter  (materialistically  disposed)  Aris- 
totelians, concerning  the  true  causes  of  sufferings ;  then 
distinguishes  general  grounds — the  fall,  God's  righteousness, 
compassion,  pedagogic  wisdom — and  special  grounds,  re- 
solving the  latter  again  into  such  as  serve  to  explain  the 
sufferings  of  the  ungodly,  and  such  as  serve  to  explain  the 
sufferings  of  the  godly.  The  special  grounds  for  explaining 
the  sufferings  of  the  godly  are  developed  in  the  form  of 
ten  points,  which  resemble  the  corresponding  decade  in 
Melancthon's  writings,  although  deviating  from  them  on 
some  single  points,  and  here  and  there  also  presenting 
something  new  which  is  of  real  value.^  Somewhat  enlarged 
also  appears  the  chapter  on  the  consolation  of  Christians 
in  suffering ;  Melancthon's  pentade  of  consolatory  grounds 
here  having  become  an  octade,  which  are  clearly  elucidated 
by  means  of  passages  of  Scripture  cited,  and  in  part  also  by 
argumentation    in   the   form    of    syllogisms.^     With    H utter 

'  So,  e.^g:,  under  No.  10  a  good  critique  of  the  Romish  conception  of  the  .suf- 
ferings of  martyrs  as  actual  satisfactions  or  expiatory  redemptive  sufferings  (Xtjrps.) 
after  the  example  of  Jesus  ;  as  well  as  of  the  abuse  of  the  passage,  Col.  i.  24  (of  the 
adinipletio  defectuuiii  passionis  Christi),  io  which  Bellarmine  had  recourse  for  tl'.e 
purpose  of  defending  this  view. 

-  L.  Hutteri,  Loci  coinin.  theologici,  Viteb.  1 6 19,  loc.  xxx.  :  De  cruce  ct  cala- 
niitatibus  sive  afflictionibus  humanis.   (pp.  933 — 948.) 


IN    THE    CHURCU    OF    THE    REFORM/VTION.  28$ 

(t  1616)  already  comes  to  a  close  the  succession  of  those 
Lutheran  dogmatists  who  assert  for  the  article  of  the  cross 
a  fixed  place  in  the  system  of  the  Loci  Coiinnnncs.  Even 
as  Chemnitz,  in  his  expository  lectures  on  the  Loci  of  his 
teacher,  Melancthon,  devoted  no  attention  to  the  section  treat- 
ing of  this  subject,  as  in  like  manner  the  dogmatic  labours 
of  ^gid.  Hunnius  do  not  know  the  doctrine  of  the  cross 
and  afflictions  as  a  special  chapter  of  the  Protestant  system 
of  doctrine,  so  is  this  doctrine  altogether  wanting  in  most 
of  the  dogmatic  systems  from  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  such  even  as  the  particularly  comprehensive 
and  highly  esteemed  work  of  John  Gerhard.  Yet  OUEN- 
STEDT  (t  1688)  still  thought  well  to  incorporate  in  his 
armour-clad  doctrinal  edifice  of  the  "  Didactic-polemic  Theo- 
logy "  a  locus,  De  cruce  ct  dc  probatione  vita;,  strongly  sea- 
soned with  dialectic  additions  in  accordance  with  the  then 
prevailing  scholastic  taste,  which  he  placed  in  immediate 
proximity  to  the  section  treating  of  faith,  of  prayer,  and 
other  means  for  appropriating  salvation.^  Some  smaller 
compendiums,  too,  in  part  belonging  to  a  still  later  period, 
concede,  in  praiseworthy  return  to  the  precedent  given  by 
Melancthon,  a  special  chapter  to  the  doctrine  of  the  cross. 
So  the  "  Geistliche  Deutungen  allerhand  weltlicher  auser- 
lesener  Historien"  of  JOH.  MOLLER  (1650)  and  the  "Ord- 
nung  des  Heils  in  Tabellcn,"  composed  by  the  venerable 
practical  expositor  of  the  Bible,  CllRlSTOrn  Starke  in 
1734,  which  as  a  thirtieth  article — between  that  of  Good 
Works  and  that  of  Prayer — treats  pretty  fully  of  "das 
Creutz."- 

The  early  disappearing  of  our  article  from  the  Lutheran- 
dogmatic  systems  of  doctrine,  at  least  from  the  specially 
distinguished  and  influential  ones,  may  be  a  matter  for 
regret,  and — as  an  indication  of  a  too    exclusive  value   at- 

'    Tlicologia  didactico-polcniiia  (\'iteb.  1691),  part  iv.  cap.  lo.   (p.  346  sq.) 
-  Joh.  Moller  (Past,  in  Dirschau)  A!lcgon\c  frofaito-sacnr,  d.  i.  gcistl.  Dciilitiigcj!, 
etc.,  Jen.  1650.   (Thl.  i.,  c.  27.) — Chr.  Starke  (then  not  as  yet  at  Driesen,  where 
he  died  hi  1744,  but  still  at  Neunhausen):  Ordmtng  dcs  Hcils  in  Tahdlcn,  etc., 
Koaigsberg  1734.  4''  (S.  58). 


286  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

tached  to  the  theoretical  or  intellectual  side  of  saving  truth, 
in  distinction    from  its   practical   moments — a   thing   to   be 
censured.^     Yet  we  must  not  forget,  in  connection  Avith  this 
phenomenon,  that   at  all  events  valuable   contributions   to- 
wards   its    development    have    been    afforded    in    the   form 
of  special   treatises,    even    on   the   part    of  those  Lutheran 
teachers    of  the    Reformation    age    and    the   period    imme- 
diately  succeeding    it,   who  do   not   concede    to    it    a  place 
in   the   organic     unity   of   the    Church's    doctrinal    system. 
This  they  effected  more  particularly  by  means  of  practical 
hortatory  or  consolatory  tractates.     Of  such  paraenetic  mono- 
graphs upon  our  theme  we  possess  several  of  eminent  value 
from    the   pen    of  Brenz    and    Urbanus    Rhegius,    the   two 
Swabian  reformers.     JOHN  Brenz  composed    in   the   years 
1527,  1528,  soon    after   the  commencement  of  his  spiritual 
functions  at  Swabian    Hall,   and    as  it  seems   with  a   view 
to   the    supplementing    of  his  two  catechisms    published  at 
about  the  same  time,  a  group  of  four  little  tractates  ("Etlich 
Tractetli "),    all  of    them    having   reference   to    our   subject. 
The    first  of  these,    "  How   the  wood  of  the  cross  is  to  be 
lopped,  and  to  be  most  softly  handled,"  pursues  in  a  popularly 
original  manner  the  thought  that  we  must  learn  not  to  flee 
the  cross  of  the  Lord,  in  itself  knotted,  unplaned,  and  hard 
pressing,  but  to  '''  lay  hold  of  it  in  the  softest  place,  that  it 
may  not  be  too  heavy  to  bear — auf  dass  es  nit  zu  schwer 
werde  zu  tragen."     And  indeed  "  the  cross  becomes  for  us 
smooth  and  planed,  if  we  see  in  Christ  our  future  redemp- 
tion and  resurrection.     If  now  by  faith  we  see  the  Son  of 
God  hanging  on  the  cross,  we   see  also  on    the   cross   the 
resurrection  (Urstend)  and  Easter  Day.     Then  is  there  joy 
in  sorrow,  life  in  death,  glory  in  reproach,  in  labore  requies. 
....  The  world  cannot  take  that  grip  :  it  is  blind,  knows 
not  how  to  say  anything  of  the  crucified  God  :  it  thinks  it 
will  seize  the  cross  at  the  softest  place ;  but  it  sees  not  the 

'  Comp.  Ritschl,  as  before,  iii.  156,  who  censures  the  ishenomenon  in  question 
as  a  "mutilation  of  the  Lutheran  dogmatics,"  and  seeks  to  explain  it  from  the 
predominating  "  stress  laid  by  Melancthon  upon  the  articles  of  faith  as  the  main 
characteristic  of  the  Church." 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  287 

Son  of  God  before  its  eyes,  and  accordingly  finds  nothing 
else  but  hurt,  ruin,  loss.  But  a  Christian  sharpens  his  eyes, 
thinks  not  so  much  of  the  cross  as  of  the  Son  of  God  (of  the 
Word),  in  whom  is  found  a  gain  a  hundredfold  more  than  is 
lost.  There  is  no  need  of  argument  upon  this  point :  if  one 
finds  the  Son  of  God  upon  the  cross,  he  finds  a  store  of  all 

good  things In  short,  let  a  cross  come  how  it  may, 

in  body,  or  possessions,  etc.,  so  is  it  always  at  top  and 
bottom  most  hard  and  almost  unplaned  ;  but  in  the  middle 
part,  where  the  Son  of  God  hangs,  it  is  most  smooth  and 
most  soft."  The  second  tractate,  "  For  what  cause  pros- 
perity and  adversity  are  sent ;  "  as  also  the  third,  "  How  one 
should  stand  towards  things  indifterent,  such  as  Church 
customs  which  are  called  ceremonies  ; "  and  not  less  the  fourth, 
"  Of  sufferings  and  Divine  Providence,"  are  devoted  to  the 
treatment  of  the  same  subject.  In  a  specially  elaborate 
manner  does  the  last  develop  the  evangelical  grounds  of 
consolation,  by  which  we  are  to  be  raised  and  strengthened 
under  cross  and  affliction;  and  this  on  the  basis  of  the  eighth 
chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  which,  in  the  leading- 
points  of  its  argument,  is  practically  expounded  and  applied.^ 
The  special  attention  which  Brenz  in  particular  devoted  to 
our  subject  is  manifest  also  from  the  chapter  "  Of  cross  and 
sufferings,"  inserted  in  the  Brandenburg-Niirnberg  liturgy 
of  the  year  1532,  which  was  compiled  mainly  under  his 
co-operation,  as  well  as  from  the  corresponding  section  of 
his  larger  catechism,  of  the  year  155 1." — Of  Urbanus 
Rhegius,  several  writings  of  the  period  of  his  labours  as 
Luneburg  superintendent  (1530 — 1536)  bear  upon  our  sub- 
ject: a  consolatory  letter  to  the  Christians  at  Hildesheim, 
a  tractate  on  the  "  medicine  of  the  soul  "  (Medicina  animee), 

'  The  first  three  of  the  "  Etlich  Tractetli  durch  Joh.  Brentz  Ecclesiasten  zu 
Schwebisch  Hall  geschrieben"  (1528)  are  furnished  in  the  (German)  work  of 
J.  Hartmann,  "Life  and  Selected  Writings  of  Joh.  Brenz"  (Elberf.  1862),  S.  322  ff. 
Of  the  fourth  he  furnishes,  S.  131,  a  pretty  complete  epitome.  The  first  two 
Tractetli  appear  also  in  Klaiber's  Evangel.  Volksbihliothek.  Stuttg.  1868,  Bd.  ii., 
S.  24  ff. 

-  Hartmann,  as  h- fore,  S,  138,  154,  288. 


288  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

and  especially  a  "  Trostbuchlein  "  to  the  Christians  at  Han- 
over, against  the  raging  and  blaspheming  of  the   Papists — 
"wider  der    Papisten  wiiten    und    lestern,"    Wittenb.    1536.^ 
In  the  last-named  writing,  the  high  value  of  which  has  been 
pointed    out   with   becoming   emphasis    by  Uhlhorn   in   his 
biography  of  Urban,  it  is  shown  how  God  in  His  leading  of 
the  pious  ever  most  closely  links  together  the  three  things  : 
the  Gospel,  the  cross,  and  the  consolation    of  redemption. 
Everywhere  He  extends  to  them  the  heavenly  ladder,  upon 
which  the  Christian,  who  will  not  remain  in  the  world,  and 
with  it  be  exposed  to  the  judgment,  has  to  climb  up.     This 
ladder  has  seven  rounds,  which,  counted  from  below  upwards,, 
are :  the  gospel  with  the  sacraments,  faith,  confession,  cross, 
patience,  experience  (inward  proof),  and  hope — to  which  God 
then  adds,  as  an  eighth  and  concluding  upward  step,  His 
Divine  deliverance  or  eternal  life."     The  central  or  middle 
position  in  the  succession  of  the  seven  steps  to  be  climbed 
represents,  according  to  Urban,  the  cross,  of  the  "  immense 
utility"  of  which  he  treats  with  special  fulness  and  minute- 
ness.    "Mark  what  a  treasure  lies  hidden  under  the  cross, 
which  the  world  cannot  see,  namely,  sanctification.     We  are 
by  the  cross  finely  meetened  for  sonship,  in  that  this  world 
loses  its  charm  for  us,  and  the  future  one  is  loved,  and  we 
desire  it  from  our  heart ;  for  by  the  cross  God  Impels  us  to  a 

life  of  penitence The  cross  makes  cheerful,  watchful, 

circumspect,  vigorous,    and  serious  Christians;    but  nothing 

'  Also  in  La'au :  Consolatio  in  omni  geneic  afflictionum  et  scala  ad  vitam 
ccelestem,  electis  Christi  membris  in  Hannovera,  in  0pp.  Urh.  Rhcgii,  Norimb. 
1562,  fol.  423 — 438.  Ibid.,  fol.  412  sqq.,  the  Medicina  animx ;  and  fol.  381  sqq., 
the  Libellus  consolatorius  electis  ....  Chr.  membris  in  Hildesheym. 

-  This  ladder  of  eight  rounds  is  gi-aphically  presented  at  the  close  of  the  tractate, 
in  the  follo\A'ing  manner  : — 

Liberatio  ab  omnibus  malis  :  vita  tctcrna      ;         .         .         .     H.  8. 

Spes.     Sperare  gloriam  post  afflictiomen  s.  cnicem       .         .     Vt.   7. 

Probatio.     Experiri  quod  Dei  promissio  vera  sit  .         .         .     F.    6. 

Patientiam  sub  cruce  prcestare,  perdurare     .         .  .         .     E/  5. 

Crucem  propter  Christum  suscipere D.  4. 

Christum  ore  et  factis  confiteri C.    3. 

Credere.     Agnoscere  peccat.  in  nobis  et  graliam  Dei  .         .     15.    2. 

Audire  Evangelium  Chrisii,  Sacramentis  Eccles.  uti    .         .     A.    i. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  289 

but  prosperous  days  without  the  cross  make  snoring,  uncir- 
cumspect,  idle,  lukewarm  Christians,  in  whom  seriousness 
dies  out,  and  with  whom  the  evil  spirit  can  do  what  he  will ; 
for  they  lie  there  defenceless,  pray  not,  do  nothing,  care 
nothing,  as  though  there  were  no  longer  any  necessity. 
While,  after  all,  for  a  Christian  no  greater  danger  and  neces- 
sity can  arise  than  carnal  security;  for  he  soon  altogether 
forgets  God  and  himself,  so  that  he  lives  on  as  the  beasts, 
and  asks  after  nothing  more  than  this  temporal  state.  There- 
fore is  the  cross  as  necessary  for  a  Christian  as  food  and 
drink."  To  the  question  of  the  great  importance  of  this 
exercise  and  purification  by  means  of  the  cross  does  he  re- 
turn at  each  of  the  following  stages.  Even  at  the  seventh, 
that  of  hope,  he  observes,  "  If,  then,  the  hope  of  Christians  is 
not  put  to  shame,  there  must  also  certainly  follow  help  and 
consolation  here  under  the  cross,  and  after  this  affliction 
everlasting  joy  and  life  ;  and  he  who  unceasingly  looks  upon 
this  reward  becomes  courageous  and  manly  to  ascend  these 
steps."  ^ 

On  the  part  also  of  several  Lutheran  theologians  of  the 
time  of  the  Reformation  the  high  significance  of  the  cross  as 
a  divine  measure  for  education,  and  a  most  important  factor 
in  the  ethical  development  of  Christians  as  a  whole  or  as  in- 
dividuals, is  duly  appreciated.  Thus  in  Andr.  Osiander's 
"  Consolatory  Treatise,  drawn  against  the  Ungodly  Assailants 
of  the  Word  of  God  out  of  the  three  first  Petitions  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer,"  in  Laz.  Spengler'S  "  Consolatory  Christian 
Direction  and  Medicine  under  all  Adversities,"  also  in  JUSTUS 
Jonas'  plea  for  the  marriage  of  priests,  against  the  episcopal 
vicar  of  Constance,  Joh.  Faber,  in  which  the  necessity  in 
particular  of  learning  to  know  the  cross  of  Christ  and  its 
sweetnesses  from  the  experiences  of  married  life  is  excellently 
brought  out.  In  like  manner  in  Dav.  Chytraeus'  brief 
introduction  to  theological  study  (Rostock,  1558),  where  the 
cross    is   adduced   as    the   tenth    and   last,   but   not   on   that 

'  A  pretty  complete  epitome  of  lliis  work  in  Uhlhorn,  Urb.  Rhegius,  S.  270 — • 
274. 

19 


290  THE   CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

account  least  important,  characteristic  mark  and   means  of 
forming  the  true  theologian.^    Some  corresponding  reflections 
upon  our  subject  are  also  found  in  the  Meditationes  sacrcE  of 
JOH.  Gerhard.     That  which  he  teaches  in  No.  41  of  these 
meditations — Christ's  suffering /^r  all, /r^;;z  all,  in  all ;  in  addi- 
tion, the  thought  of  the  greatness  of  the  heavenly  reward,  of 
the  Exemplar  of  all  saints,  of  the  inner  sweetness  and  blessed- 
ness of  the  cross  itself,  etc. — offers,  it  is  true,  no  fully  equivalent 
compensation  for  the  absence  of  the  article  of  the  cross  in 
his  system  of  doctrine,  but  it  nevertheless  abounds  in  truly 
refreshing   and    consolatory  suggestions,  and    by  no  means 
merits  the  severe  judgment  of  Ritschl,  who  thought  himself 
justified  in  characterising  the  contents  of  this  chapter  as  an 
*'  exceedingly   frigid    reflection."  ^      As   the   thoughtful    and 
pleasing  character  of  these  Meditations  of  Gerhard  on  the 
cross,  temptation,  and  patience^  carries  us  back  to  the  writings 
of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  so  has  it  many  points  in  common  with 
the  corresponding  chapters  in  the  "True  Christianity"  of  the 
contemporary  J  OH.  Arndt,  and  further  shows  the  numerous 
precious  fruits  of  the  later  ascetic  literature  of  our  subject. 
We  refer,  for  example,  only  to  the  heart-refreshing  passion 
sermons  and  meditations  of  a  Herberger,  Joh.  Heermann,  M. 
Hyller,  H.  Miiller,  Hedinger,  Rambach,  Steinhofer,  Liitkcns, 
Lassenius,  etc. ;  to  the  books  for  edification  published  under 
the  title  of  "  School  of  the  Cro.ss  or  of  Consolation  "  (or  of 
"  School  of  the  Cross  "  alone,  or  of  "  School  of  Patience,"  or 
"  School  of  Conflict,"  or  "  Kreuz,  Buss,  und  Betschule,"  etc.)  by 
a  Wudrian,  Olearius,  Miiller,  Kegel,  Weidner,  M.  Fr.  Roos, 
etc.;  finally,  and  above  all,  to  the  classic  productions  of  that 
master,  properly  so  called,  of  this  evangelical  cross  and  con- 

'  De  Studio  Thcologim  recte  inchoando,  Rostoch.,  1558  (1572).  Comp.  Th.  Pressel, 
Dav.  Chytriius,  S.  I5f.,  and,  as  concerns  the  work  of  Justus  Jonas,  Adversusyoh. 
Fabrum  pro  conjtigio  sacerdotali  (1523),  the  work  by  the  same  author,  J.  Jonas, 
S.  52. — On  the  writing  of  Osiander,  above  referred  to,  W.  Moller,  S.  274f. 

^  Lehre  v.  d.  Rcchtfeytigung,  iii.  158. 

"  Comp.,  besides  Aled.  41  :  Fundamenta  patientise  Christianas;  also  Med.  40, 
De  utilitate  tentationum ;  as  well  as  Med.  42,  Quomodo  vincenda  tentatio.  De 
perseverantia,  in  Scholz'  edition  of  the  Meditait.  sacrce,  and  of  the  Exercitium 
pietatis  (Giitersloh,  1863),  p.  162  sqq. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  29 1 

solation  literature,  ClIR.  Scriver  ;  specially  the  fourth  or 
paracletic  part  of  the  "  Soul's  Treasure,"  Gotthold's  "  Bed  of 
Sickness  and  Victory,"  together  with  several  of  the  most 
valuable  a.id  thoughtful  of  Gotthold's  "  Emblems."  ^  A  more 
detailed  reference  to  this  literature  would  lead  us — not  indeed 
away  from  our  theme,  but  in  its  prosecution  beyond  the  limits 
of  our  special  task.  The  names  mentioned  will  suffice  em- 
phatically to  remind  of  the  abundant  treasures  our  Church  has 
accumulated  in  this  domain,  so  extraordinarily  conducive  to 
the  furtherance  of  the  whole  Christian  life.  They  will  serve 
to  render  manifest  the  fulness  of  salutary  Christian  fruits, 
ripened  under  the  steadfast  perseverance  and  progress  of  our 
fathers  in  Christ  upon  that  lowly  but  victory  and  triumph- 
yielding  path  of  the  cross,  which  the  chivalrous  champion  and 
protector  of  the  German  Reformation  once  chose,  when,  "  un- 
troubled about  his  coronet,"  he  uttered  the  manly  declaration^ 
"  I  will  acknowledge  my  Lord,  whose  cross  is  more  to  me 
than  all  the  power  of  earth  ! "  " 

To  the  theology  and  Church  of  the  Reformed  Con- 
fession it  certainly  cannot  be  objected  that  it  has  been 
wanting  in  joyful  readiness  and  steadfast  courage  for  entering 
upon  this  path  of  the  cross.  Yet  the  position  assumed  by  it 
in  relation  to  our  article  appears  to  be  one  differing  in  many 
respects  from  that  of  the  doctrinal  tradition  of  the  Lutheran 
Church.  Calvin's  Institutio  presents,  in  its  later  and  enlarged 
editions,  a  pretty  comprehensive  section,  De  criicis  tolerantia, 
placed  in  the  editions  from  1559  downwards,  between  the 
chapter  "  On  Self-Denial"  and  that  "  On  the  Contemplation 
of  the  Life  to  Come,"  and  brought  into  specially  close  relation 
with  the  former ;  in  such  wise  that  the  bearing  of  the  cross 
appears  as  a  constituent  part  in  the  work  of  self-denial,  or 
a  special  form  and  mode  of  the  same.^      The  tone  of  the 

'  As,  e.g..  No.  136  :  "The  Christian  without  a  Cross."  [Further  references  to 
the  German  literature  of  the  subject  will  be  found  at  this  place  in  the  author's  own 
work.] 

^  John  the  Constant,  when  he  was  in  the  act  of  subscribing  his  name  to  ihe 
Augsburg  Confession.     (Comp.  Schmidt,  Melancthon,  S.  201.) 

^  De  crucis  tolerantia,  qute  pars  est  abnegationis.  In  the  editions  after  1559, 
lib.  iii.,  cap.  8;  previously  (after  1545),  lib.  ii.,  c.  21,  §§  15 — 25. 


292  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

argumentation  therein  presented  is — in  essential  difference 
from  that  in  the  parallel  chapters  with  Melancthon  and 
his  successors — not  so  much  one  of  dogmatic  expounding 
and  consolatory  edifying,  as  rather  of  earnestly  exhorting, 
warning,  and  the  enforcing  of  ethical  rules  and  precepts. 
The  para^netic  element  preponderates  over  the  paracletic  to 
a  very  high  degree.  The  whole  section,  which  attaches  itself 
to  the  ten  exhortations  to  self-denial  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
comprehends  in  itself  altogether  eleven  paroeneses  : 

1.  We  must  regard  all  trouble  of  this  earth  as  a  com- 
munion of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  or  as  a  taking  up  of  His 
cross ; 

2.  We  are  to  be  lowly  under  the  thought  that,  while  Christ 
indeed  suffered  only  and  alone  out  of  free  obedience  to  the 
Father's  will,  no  one  of  us  suffers  without  guilt  ; 

3.  We  are  to  learn  from  tribulation  patience,  and  from 
patience  experience,  and  from  experience  hope,  Rom.  v.  3,  4  ; 

4.  We  are  to  regard  all  sufferings  as  salutary  measures  of 
God,  to  exercise  us  in  obedience,  and  to  try  our  faith  as  gold 
is  tried  in  the  fire  (i  Pet.  i.  7) ; 

5.  We  are  to  recognise,  from  the  obstinate  resistance  of  our 
flesh  to  God's  salutary  discipline,  how  necessary  it  is  to  be 
exercised  in  the  bearing  of  the  cross  ; 

6.  We  are  to  recognise  in  all  sufferings  the  sign  of  the 
corrective  fatherly  love  of  God  towards  us,  as  His  sons,  not 
bastards,  Heb.  xii.  7  f.; 

7.  We  are  to  esteem  suffering  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and 
His  righteousness,  not  as  loss  or  shame,  but  as  the  highest 
honour,  Matt.  v.  10  f;  Acts  v.  41  ; 

8.  We  are  to  bear  our  cross  with  joyful  gratitude  towards 
God,  to  fight  at  all  times  valiantly  against  being  overcome  by 
the  sense  of  pain  ; 

9.  We  must  be  on  our  guard  against  the  unnaturally  rigid 
and  rugged  contempt  of  pain  and  death  displayed  by  the 
Stoics,  but  rather  follow  the  example  of  Him  who  wept  with 
those  that  wept,  as  also  the  pattern  given  by  the  Apostle, 
2  Cor.  iv.  8 — 10; 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  293 

10.  Wc  are  to  avoid  also  the  extreme  of  despairing  under 
afiliction,  following  the  example  of  a  Peter,  who  for  God  and 
Christ's  sake  suffered  himself  to  be  girded  and  led  whither  he 
would  not,  John  xxi.  18  ; 

I  r.  We  are  to  learn  in  general,  in  opposition  to  the  false 
and  fatalistic-proud  firmness  of  the  philosophers,  that  true 
Christian  patience  through  which  the  bitterness  of  the  cross 
is  succeeded  and  assuaged  by  true  spiritual  joy. 

It  produces  to  some  extent  the  impression  of  harsh  legality 
that  these  statements,  however  much  of  a  paracletic  character 
they  may  contain  in  themselves,  yet  almost  without  exception 
bear  the  form  of  precepts,  exhortations,  or  warnings,  that 
thus  the  debet,  decet,  oportet,  etc.,  present  therein  a  much 
greater  number  than  do  the  applications  of  consolatory  pro- 
mises. The  following, chapter  too,  that  on  the  contemplation 
of  the  life  to  come,  bears  this  preponderantly  parainetic, 
rather  than  thetically  expository  and  paracletic,  character. 
Yet  the  latter  beautifully  closes  with  a  reference,  equally 
hortatory  as  consolatory,  to  the  bliss-giving  power  of  the  re- 
surrection, which  is  exerted  in  us  in  and  with  the  communion 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ :  "  Then  first  triumphs  in  the 
hearts  of  believers  the  cross  of  the  Lord  over  Satan,  the  flesh, 
sin,  and  the  ungodly,  when  their  eyes  are  directed  to  the 
power  of  His  resurrection."  (2  Thess.  i.  6,  sqq.)  Important 
enlargements  upon  our  subject  are  presented  also  in  Calvin's 
treatise  "  On  Offences  "  {De  scandalis),  with  its  affecting  ex- 
hortations against  the  fear  of  the  cross  or  the  shunning  of  the 
cross.  In  like  manner  in  his  homilies  on  the  principal  Old 
Testament  mine  of  doctrine  on  the  cross  of  suffering,  the 
book  of  Job,  particularly  on  ch.  xix.  17 — 25  of  that  book.^ 

Besides  Calvin,  it  is  specially  Peter  Martyr  Ver^hgli, 
among  the  Reformed  Theologians,  who  devotes  a  more 
particular  attention  to  the  article  of  the  cross  of  suffer- 
ing as  a  salutary  means  of  discipline  on  the  part  of  God  in 
His  training  and  sanctifying  operation  upon  the  godly.  His 
tractate    "  Of  the   Bearing   of  Cross,  Afflictions,  Flight,  and 

>  Comp.  Stahelin,  Joh.  Calvin,  ii.  266  f.,  426  ff. 


294  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Banishment,"  forms  the  twelfth  locus  m  the  evangehcal  system 
of  doctrine,  composed  out  of  his  writings  after  his  death  ; 
preceded  by  that  "  Of  the  Christian  Life,"  and  followed  by 
that  "  Of  Prayer  and  the  Intercession  of  Christ."  ^  The  treat- 
ment dwells,  after  advancing  a  number  of  reasons  why  God 
is  wont  to  impose  cross  and  afflictions,  with  special  minuteness 
upon  the  distinction  between  those  sufferings,  on  the  one  hand, 
which  we  have  drawn  upon  ourselves  or  have  imposed  upon 
ourselves  by  an  act  of  our  own  will,  and  that  cross  and  suffer- 
ing, on  the  other  hand,  imposed  upon  us  by  God,  A  patient 
bearing  of  the  latter  he  declares  to  be  infinitely  more  impor- 
tant, more  salutary,  but  at  the  same  time  more  difficult,  than 
any  self-chosen  battling  with  our  desires,  even  supposing  this 
to  be  carried  on  with  unsparing  strictness  and  severity.  In 
like  manner  are  the  noted  virtues  of  heathen  heroes  and 
philosophers — firmness,  self-denial,  valour,  etc. — far  surpassed 
by  the  corresponding  virtues  of  Christians  ;  while  the  apos- 
tolic "  rejoicing  and  glorying  in  tribulations "  is  something 
entirely  foreign  to  the  world  of  heathenism.  For  Christians' 
sufferings  are  only  a  means  of  advancing  them  upon  the 
course  of  ethical  perfection.  "  They  are  as  the  Red  Sea,  in 
which  Pharaoh  perishes,  but  Israel  is  delivered  ;  for  with  the 
ungodly  they  call  forth  despair ;  with  the  godly,  the  certain 
assurance  of  salvation." 

To  Calvin  and  Peter  Martyr  attach  themselves  in  part 
the  leading  representatives  of  the  Dogmatic-ethic  doctrinal 
tradition  of  the  Reformed  Church  subsequent  to  them.  Yet 
that  neglect  into  which  our  article  begins  to  fall  in  the 
teaching  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  even  in  the  generations 
immediately  succeeding  Melancthon,  here  makes  its  appear- 
ance if  anything  still  earlier,  and  to  a  larger  extent.  To  this 
contributes  not  a  little  the  fact,  which  has  its  root  in  the 
essential  characteristic  of  the  Reformed  Church  itself,  that 
tJie  polemic  against  the  external  cross-zvorship  of  the  Romish 
tradition  appears  to  a  great  number  of  distinguished  teachers  of 

'  Petri  Martyris,  Loci  Co  mm.    Thcologici,  Basil.,  1580.  Tom.  i.,  p.  1193 — 1212, 
De  cruce  et  afflictioiiibus  peiferendis,  ubi  etiam  de  fuga  et  exilio. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  295 

tJiis  CJmrcJi,  and  particularly  several  among  the  Reformers,  as 
Zwingli,  Farel,  Beza,  etc.,  something  of  far  greater  importance 
and  necessity  than  the  conceiving  of  sufferings  and  trials  under 
the  point  of  view  of  the  following  of  Christ,  or  of  the  cross 
imposed  by  Him.  This  circumstance  leads  over  to  the  con- 
templation of  a  second  principal  moment  in  the  modern  or 
post-Reformational  development  of  our  subject. 


B.  THE  TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  CULTIC  USE  OF  THE 
CROSS  IN  ACCORDANCE  WITH  THE  REFORMATIONAL 
SPIRITUALISING  OF  ITS  IDEA,  AND  THE  CONTROVERSIES 
WITH  THE  ROMISH  THEOLOGIANS  RELATING    THERETO. 

In  relation  to  the  prevalent  sensuous  external  conception 
of  the  idea  of  the  cross  and  of  its  place  in  worship  on  the  part 
of  the  Western  Church,  the  representatives  of  the  evangelical 
Theology  and  Church  might  occupy  one  of  two  positions. 
They  might,  in  following  the  precedent  of  the  pre-Reformers 
and  Mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  lay  indeed  a  preponderating 
stress  upon  the  spiritualised  idea  of  the  cross  in  the  sense  of 
Matt.  xvi.  24,  and  yet  for  that  reason  deal  sparingly  with  the 
sensuous  honouring  and  glorifying  of  the  symbol  of  salvation 
in  connection  with  traditional  rites  of  worship;  thus  they 
would  reject  and  set  aside  only  the  worst  forms  of  excrescence 
upon  this  domain,  the  absolutely  contra-scriptural,  idolatrous, 
heathenish.  Or  they  might  go  to  work  in  a  more  radical 
manner,  and  regard  the  whole  province  of  a  devotion  cultivated 
through  the  medium  of  external  signs  and  material  representa- 
tion from  the  point  of  view  of  idolatry,  of  that  deifying  of  the 
creature  forbidden  in  the  second  commandment  of  the  Deca- 
logue ;  by  which  the  standpoint  of  a  Claude,  of  a  Peter  de 
Bruis,  and  the  Waldenses,  is  returned  to,  and  the  use  of 
material  crosses  in  worship  is  altogether  banished. 

At  the  milder  and  more  conservative  standpoint  did  the 
Lutheran  Church  place  itself.  Luther  we  saw  above, 
simultaneously  with  his  zealous  opposition  to  the  misplaced 
"  external  reverence "  shown  to   the  cross,  giving  utterance 


296  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

to  the  declaration,  "  That  any  should  wish  to  tread  even  the 
sacred  cross  underfoot,  were  not  good.  That  one  honours  it, 
is  indeed  as  it  shoidd  be  (fein),"  etc.  In  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  this  declaration  is  his  whole  theoretical  and  practical 
bearing  in  relation  to  this  question.  Decidedly  as  he  warns 
against  superstitious  pilgrimages  to  crosses  alleged  to  be 
endued  with  miraculous  powers,  adoration  of  splinters  of 
the  true  cross,  and  such-like  practices,  as  foolish  "  delusion 
and  conceit,"  yea,  as  "nothing  but  error  and  idolatry;"  indig- 
nantly as  he  exclaims,  in  opposition  to  the  advocates  of  these 
superstitious  doctrines  and  rites,  "  Therefore  I  would  that  all 
crosses  were  overthrown,  which  have  thus  exuded  sweat  and 
blood,  whence  have  arisen  the  pilgrimages  and  bawling  which 
have  wrought  so  much  error  and  misery; "  ^  yet  he  will  not 
on  that  account  hear  of  a  radical  abolishing  of  all  religious  use 
of  pictorial  representations  of  the  cross  or  of  the  Crucified  ; 
yea,  he  expressly  puts  in  a  word  in  favour  thereof.  "  Although 
I  do  not  entirely  reject  images,  and  specially  the  figure  of  the 
crucified  Christ"  he  says  in  one  of  his  sermons  on  the  day  of 
the  discovery  of  the  cross.  In  accordance  with  the  principle 
"that  images  and  Sabbath  are  matters  of  freedom  in  the 
New  Testament,"  does  he  regulate  also  his  bearing  towards 
crosses  and  crucifixes,  alike  in  the  exercise  of  his  personal 
piety  as  in  his  influence  upon  the  religious  customs  and 
institutions  of  the  Lutheran  community.^  As  he  chooses  as 
the  arms  of  his  seal  a  (white)  rose,  with  (red)  heart  and 
(black)  cross  thereon,^  so  does  he  wish  that  every  Christian 
father  of  the  family  of  the  evangelical  communion  should 
"  in  the  morning,  when  he  gets  out  of  bed,  bless  himself  with 
the  holy  cross,"  and  after  that  pray  his  " Das  wait  Gott"  etc. 
In  like  manner,  he  does  not  speak  contemptuously  or  with 
condemnation,  but  rather  with  approbation,  of  the  custom 
descended  from  the   Papacy  of  saying  "  Benedicite,  gratias, 

'  Sermon   on  the   Day  of  the   Elevation   of  the  Cross  (Erl.  edn.),    Bd.  xv., 

S.  459- 

^  Sermon  on  the  Day  of  the  Invention  of  the  Cross,  Bd.  xv.,  334.      Letter  "  To 
the  Christians  at  Strassburg"  (1524),  liii.,  S.  275. 

'  KostUn,  Liither,  Sein  Lcben  xmd  seine  Schriften  (1874),  i.,  S.  22. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  297 

and  other  blessings  morning  and  evening,"  as  also  of  the 
"childish  practice  of  blessing  oneself/  when  one  sees  or  hears 
something  dreadful  and  terrible."  So  does  he  by  his  sermons 
of  the  days  of  the  invention  and  elevation  of  the  cross  sanc- 
tion the  retention  of  these  high  days  in  the  festive  cycle  of 
his  Church,  and  no  less  lays  the  foundation  for  the  other 
religious  applications  which  crucesignation  and  the  cross 
have  found  in  Lutheran  lands  ;  for  the  use  of  altar-crucifixes 
and  crosses  in  connection  with  funereal  processions  ;  for  the 
employment  of  the  a'lix  usiialis  in  the  benediction  at  the 
close  of  the  service,  in  the  act  of  baptism,  in  the  conse- 
cration— not  indeed  of  holy  water,  oil,  salt,  tapers,  and 
such-like,  but  yet — of  the  bread  and  wine  in  the  Lord's 
supper. 

The  polemic  against  the  sensuous  cultus  of  the  cross  in 
the  Romish  Church  plays,  in  correspondence  with  this  essen- 
tially conservative  tendency,  no  specially  prominent  part 
either  with  Luther  or  the  other  fathers  and  founders  of  the 
Lutheran  Reformation.  It  is  ordinarily  entirely  wanting  in 
such  sermons,  devotional  writings,  or  dogmatic-ethical  disser- 
tations as  are  specially  devoted  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
cross  in  the  spiritual  sense.  Neither  Luther's  sermons  "  Of 
Cross  and  Sufferings,"  nor  the  writings  of  a  Brenz,  a  Rhegius, 
etc.,  bearing  on  this  subject,  nor  Melancthon's  locus  thereon, 
contain  critical  excursions  upon  this  field  of  polemics.  The 
earliest  attempts  in  the  domain  of  Church  History  at  contest- 
ing the  right  of  the  Romish  adoration  of  the  cross  display  a 
temperate  and  conservative  bearing.  The  Magdeburg  cen- 
turies still  frankly  acknowledge  the  existence  of  a  religious 
use  of  the  cross  even  in  the  period  immediately  succeeding 
the  Apostolic  age.  They  admit  that  from  the  well-known 
passage  of  Tertullian,  where  it  speaks  of  the  reproach  of 
worshipping  the  cross  brought  against  the  Christians,  it 
seems  to  follow  that  they  then  already  possessed  figures  of 
the  cross,  whether  in  their  places  of  religious  assembly,  or  at 

'  Lat.  text:  "ut  sese  cruce  vel  precatiuncula  muniant."     Catech.  viaj.,  p.  399, 
74  Miill. 


298  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

home  in  their  private  dwellings.^  In  M.  Chemnitz'  critique 
upon  the  Council  of  Trent  (1573)  is  a  sharper  polemic  first 
waged  in  the  direction  referred  to.  The  cultic  use  of  crosses 
in  the  places  of  assembly  of  the  pre-Constantine  Christendom 
is  here  throughout  decidedly  contested,  and  the  age  of  cruci- 
fixes strictly  so  called — i.e.,  figures  of  the  cross  with  the  form 
of  the  suffering  Saviour  upon  it — is  dated  back  to  a  period 
not  much  earlier  than  the  time  of  the  second  Trullan  Council  ; 
since  the  canon  of  this  Council  bearing  upon  the  question 
speaks  of  such  representations  as  only  recently  having  come 
into  use.^  ■  As  Chemnitz  notoriously  falls  into  a  hypercritical 
exaggeration  upon  this  point,^  so  does  his  argumentation 
upon  the  whole  subject  contain  much  that  is  open  to  excep- 
tion, and  which  has  been  refuted  by  later  researches  in  the 
province  of  the  earliest  history  of  Christian  worship  and  art. 
The  impulse  given  by  him  to  a  more  exact  historico-critical 
examination  of  the  domain  in  question  must,  however,  be 
recognised  as  an  indisputable  merit.  It  has  borne,  among 
friends  and  foes,  important  fruits  in  the  form  of  further  con- 
troversies upon  the  disputed  point,  and  has  thus  cleared  the 
ground  for  a  more  thorough  investigation  of  the  whole  subject. 
The  Reformed  Church  took  up  from  the  first,  in  the  per- 
son of  her  founders  and  earliest  theological  representatives, 
a  position  sternly  antagonistic,  not  only  to  the  worship  of 
images,  but  also  to  the  adoration  of  the  cross.  The  stormy 
scenes  of  renewed  burning  of  images,  which  play  a  leading 
part  specially  in  the  history  of  the  Reformation  in  Switzer- 
land, brought  to  destruction,  along  with  many  useless  images 
of  Mary  or  the  saints,  also    many  an    artistically  valuable 

'  Centur.  Magdeb.,  iii.  c.  6:  "  Crucis  imaginem  seu  in  locis  publicoram  con- 
gressuum,  seu  domi  privatim  Christianos  habuisse,  in  eodem  libio  {Apolog.,  c.  i6) 
indicare  videtur  Tertullianus ;  ab  hoc  enim  Ethnici  Christianis  objiciebant,  quod 
'  crucis  religiosi '  essent." 

-  Exani.  Concil.  Trid.,  lib.  iv.,  p.  779  sqq.  (edn.  Preuss).  Especially  advanced 
and  assailable  is  the  position  :  Observandum  vero  est,  imaginem  Christi  crucifix!, 
h.  e.  sicut  canon  loquitur,  figuram  seu  speciem  humanam  reprasentantem  humilia- 
tionem,  passionem,  et  mortem  ipsius,  istis  primum  temporibus  circa  ann.  Dom. 
690  coepisse  fieri  et  in  Ecclesia  coUocari. 

^  Comp.  above,  ch.  iii.  p.  125.      Further  in  Augusti,  ArchdoL,  iii.  577  ff. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  299 

representation  of  the  crucified  Saviour,  or  many  a  fair  Pas- 
sion picture.  By  the  "Conjurors'  Tables,"  which  ZwiNGLI 
declared  must  be  abolished,  in  order  that  the  Pope  might 
no  longer  have  his  posts  in  the  Church,  were  notoriously  to 
be  understood  altars  with  altar-images,  thus  works  of  art  of 
the  latter  kind ;  and  no  other  is  his  meaning  by  the  term 
"storks'  nests,"  which  must  be  burnt,  if  we  would  have 
no  storks  upon  the  house,^  Even  as  Zwingli,  does 
Calvin,  too,  express  himself  with  inexorable  severity— a 
severity  tempered  by  no  declarations  in  other  places — 
against  all  and  every  kind  of  religious  use  of  images,  as 
incompatible  with  the  ten  commandments,  and  necessarily 
leading  to  idolatry.  His  disquisition  thereon  in  the  Institutio 
falls  into  a  like  hypercriticism  with  regard  to  ecclesiastical 
use  of  images  in  general,  as  did  Chemnitz  with  regard  to  the 
antiquity  of  crosses  and  crucifixes  ;  for  he  ventures  simply 
and  without  qualification  to  deny  the  presence  of  images  of 
any  kind  in  Christian  churches  during  the  first  five  centuries.^ 
Similarly  as  Calvin,  did  also  Farel  and  Beza  declare  them- 
selves against  every  use  of  images  and  crucifixes  for  religious 
purposes.  The  former  composed  a  treatise  "  On  the  true  Use 
of  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ"  (1560),^  the  bluntly  anti-Romish 
argumentations  of  which  form  a  remarkable  contrast  to  the 
sermons  or  treatises  of  a  Luther,  a  Brenz,  a  Rhegius,  etc.,  on 
the  same  theme.  Of  the  cross  in  the  spiritual  sense,  and 
the  duty  of  patiently  bearing  the  same,  there  is  no  syllable 
throughout  this  little  book.  The  whole  is  a  mail-clad  contro- 
versial treatise  against  the  idolatrous  worship  of  the  cross  on 
the  part  of  the  Romish  Church,  of  which  the  unscripturalness 
and  inconsistency  with  the  principles  and  practice  of  the 
earliest  Christians  is  set  forth  not  without  exegetic  and  patris- 

'  See  especially  his  statements  at  the  second  Zurich  controversy  (Oct.  1523) 
against  images  and  the  mass,  Christoffel,  Huldr.  Zwingli.,  S.  107  f.  Comp.  also 
the  chapter  De  statuis  et  imaginibus,  in  the  Commentar.  de  vera  et  falsa  rclig., 
1525.  On  acts  of  violence  against  crosses,  as  well  before  that  disputation  (Nich. 
Hotlinger)  as  after  the  same,  comp.  Christoffel,  S.  108,  124. 

■^  Inst.  Rel.  Christ.,  lib.  i.,  c.  II,  §  13.     Comp.  lib.  iv.,  c.  9,  §  9. 

^  Published  anew  by  Felix  Bovet  (Geneva,  1865)  :  Dn  vray  usage  de  la  croix  de 
Jesus  Christ,  par  Guillaume  Farel,  suivi  de  divers  ecrits  du  meme  auteur. 


300  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

tic  learning.     Every  attempt  to  have,  or  honour,  or  still  more 
worship,  crosses  or  crucifixes  apart  from  Christ,  or  by  means 
of  them  to  seek  to  work  miracles,  is  condemned  as  idolatry. 
"The    Saviour  Jesus,  as  the  Gospel  teaches  to  know  Him, 
and  as  we  are  by  the  Holy  Ghost  made  partakers  of  Him 
through  the  sacraments,  is  the  true  Christ,  whom  the  man 
who  has  once  come  to  the   knowledge  of   Him  can  neither 
forsake  nor  deny.    But  the  Christ  known  by  means  of  images, 
crucifixes,  and    signs   of  the  cross  is    not    the    true    Christ ; 
He  preserves  neither  from  the  denial  of  His  name,  nor  from 
the  service  of  Antichrist."^     The  manner  in  which  the  mis- 
chief and  injury  inflicted  upon  Christianity  by  the  pretended 
discovery  of  the  cross  on  the  part  of  Helena  is  censured,  in 
which  the  "proud  and  presumptuous  folly  and  stupidity""  of 
the  Romish  apologetes  of  the  sensuous  cultus  of  the  cross  is 
lashed,  in  which  the  inconsistency  of  restricting  the  idolatrous 
cultus  only  to  the  cross  and  the  nails,  and  not  extending  it,  for 
instance,  to  the  Lord's  crown  of  thorns,  is  reproved,  in  which 
the  pilgrimages,  now  to  this  cross,  alleged  to  be  endued  with 
miraculous  powers,  now  to  that,  are  ridiculed,  vividly  reminds 
one  of  the  fiery  spirit  of  a  Claude  of  Turin.^ — Of  Beza  belongs 
in  particular  to  this  place  his  tolerably  sweeping  vote  given 
against  the  adoration   of  the  cross,  on  the   occasion  of  his 
conference  with  the  Wiirtemberg  Lutherans,  as  Jac.  Andrea 
and    others,    at    Mompelgard,    in  the   year  1586.     Although 
he  agreed  with  his   Lutheran  opponents  to  this  extent,  that 
he   disapproved    of  the  violent   removal   and  destruction  of 
images,  and  conceded  their  permission,  as  that  of  organs  and 
instrumental  music,  as  things  indifferent ;  yet  he  expressed 
himself  with  severity  against  the  use  of  images  as  a  means 
for  advancing  the  Church's  devotion,  and   maintained   that 
pictorial  representations  of  the  crucified  Saviour  had  from  of 


'  .  .  .  .  Mais  celuy  qui  est  cognu  par  les  images,  par  les  croix,  et  par  les  signes 
des  croix,  n'est  point  le  vray  Christ,  et  n'empesche  point  de  renier  Christ,  et  de 
recevoir  et  servir  I'Antechrist.  (/.  c,  p.  158.) 

^  P.  139  :  bestise  et  asnerie  tant  orgueilleuse  et  outrecuid^e,  etc. 

2  L.  c,  p.  16  sq.,  68  sq.,  141  sq.,  143,  145  sqq. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  301 

old  been  found  more  to  injure  than  benefit  the  reh'gious  Hfe 
of  the  Church,  and  to  lead  many  to  idolatry/ 

Even  as  late  as  the  seventeenth  century,  iconoclastic  excesses 
were  practised  here  and  there  by  the  more  zealous  representa- 
tives of  this  cultic  Puritanism  of  the  Reformed  Church.  The 
court  preacher  of  Friedrich  V.  of  the  Palatinate,^  Abrah. 
Scultetus,  soon  after  Friedrich's  coronation  as  king  of  the 
Bohemians  (end  of  1619)  reformed  the  Castle  Church  at 
Prague,  by  causing  the  images  to  be  violently  removed  there- 
from. In  defence  of  his  thesis,  "All  images  should  be  put 
away  from  churches ;  all  altars,  tablets,  crucifixes,  and 
paintings,  because  they  are  idolatrous  and  have  their  origin 
in  the  Papacy,  are  to  be  entirely  and  utterly  abolished,"  he 
published  at  the  beginning  of  the  following  year  the  sermon, 
"A  brief  Scriptural  Report  of  the  Idol  Images  in  the  Christian 
Church  at  Prague,"  which  he  afterwards  had  to  vindicate 
under  the  pseudonym  of  Theophilus  Mosanus,  against  ani- 
madversions on  various  sides,  and  among  these  particularly 
the  "  thorough  counter-report  to  Abraham  Scultetus'  sup- 
posed scriptural  report  of  the  idol  images,"  of  the  Lutheran 
Balduinus  (Wittenberg,  1620).^ — Outside  of  Germany,  too, 
the  rugged  principles  of  the  Reformed  Church,  with  regard  to 
the  use  of  images  as  something  anti-Christian,  have  repeatedly 
led  to  the  practical  as  well  as  the  literary  renewal  of  the 
iconoclastic  conflicts  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries.  Well 
known  are  the  attacks  made  upon  images  by  the  French 
Huguenots  at  Valence,  Rouen,  Orleans,  Lyons,  and  else- 
where, with  regard  to  which,  not  only  Calvin,  but  also  Conde, 
felt  it  necessary  publicly  to  express  disapproval ;  as  in  like 
manner  the  devastation  by  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  Belgium,  about  the  year  1 566,  of  churches  in  that 

'  Ac(a  coUoqtiii  Montisbell.  (Tubing.,  1 5  94),  pp.  400sqq.,  417,  420  sq.  Comp. 
Piper,  Einleititng,  etc.,  S.  690. 

^  [Son-in-l'aw  of  James  I.  of  England,  and  ancestor  of  the  present  Royal  Family.] 

'   Theophili  Mosani  Vindicia,  odcr  Griindliche  Rettufig  der  kurzen  und  Schrift- 

mdssigen  Predigt,  so  Abrah.  Scultetus  .   .   .  gethait.     Hanaw,  1620. — On  the  whole 

controversy,  comp.  Pfaff :  De  eo  quod  licitiim  est  circa  picturam  i/naginu/n  SS, 

Trinitatis  et  personarum  Divinarum.     Aug.  Vindel.,  1749,  No.  36  sqq. 


302  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

land,  amounting  (as  is  alleged)  to  four  hundred  in  number. 
The  history  of  the  Scottish  Reformation,  too,  is  not  free  from 
similar  stormy  scenes,  to  which  on  some  occasions,  moreover, 
crosses  in  particular  fell  victims,  without  calling  forth  on  the 
part  of  Knox  any  other  than  humorous  remarks  with  regard 
thereto.  In  England  the  few  minute  points,  in  which  it  was 
thought  well  to  retain  the  use  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the 
liturgy  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  especially  its  application  in 
the  sacrament  of  baptism,  gave  rise  to  fierce  literary  contro- 
versies between  Anglicans  and  Presbyterians.^ 

Of  greater  importance  than  these  controversies,  carried  on 
within  the  bosom  of  the  evangelical  confessions  themselves, 
from  which  neither  scientific  research  nor  even  the  interest 
of  Christian  piety  could  hope  to  derive  real  profit,  was  the 
learned  polemic  waged  with  respect  to  images  and  crosses 
between  the  theological  representatives  of  Protestantism  and 
those  of  Rome  from  the  time  of  the  Tridentine  Council.  In 
this  were  deposited  the  fruitful  germs  of  a  series  of  vigorous 
researches  in  the  domain  of  the  earlier  history  of  the  cultus 
and  art  of  the  Christian  Church,  yea  eve7i  those  to  a  certain 
extent  impelling  to  the  creation  of  the  ivJiole  Christian  archceology 
as  a  science.  The  assaults  directed  by  Flacius  and  Chemnitz 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  by  Calvin  and 
others  from  that  of  the  Reformed,  against  the  renewal  of  the 
ancient,  uncritically  corrupted,  and  heathenised  tradition  by 
the  ecclesiastical  legislation  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  were  first 
met  on  the  Romish  side — if  we  except  the  unimportant 
controversial  productions  of  an  Eisengrein,  an  Arn.  Meermann, 
etc. — by  Bellarmine,  in  his  great  polemico-dogmatic  work 
(1582  ff.),  and  Baronius,  in  his  Annals  of  Church  History 
{1588  ff.).  Both  represented  the  traditional  principle  with 
like  onesidedness  as  did  the  others  the  Reformational-critical; 
they  come  therefore  into  collision  with  historic  truth,  to  an 
extent  corresponding  with  that  of  the  others  in  the  opposite 
direction.     Bellarmine  accordingly  seeks,  on  the  one  hand,  to 

'  Soldan,  Gesch.  des  Protesiantismus  in  Frankreic/i,  ii.,  S.  33  ff.  Fr.  Brandes, 
John  Knox,  S.  152,  180.     Schoell,  art.  "Puritaner"  in  Herzog,  12.  364. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  303 

date  back  as  far  as  possible  the  origin  of  Christian  painting 
and  of  the  Church's  use  of  images,  by  the  assertion  that  even 
from  the  time  of  Christ  Himself  there  existed  three  authentic 
likenesses  of  Him;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  represent  the 
homage  presented  to  the  cross  in  the  later  Church  (from 
the  time  of  John  Damascenus)  as  mere  Dulia,  not  Latvia, 
and  thus  as  much  as  possible  to  deprive  it  of  its  offensive 
character.  Baronius,  again,  places  his  critical  investigation  at 
the  service  of  the  most  degrading  superstition,  one  devoted  to 
the  worship  of  relics.  He  defends,  e.g.,  as  genuine  the  wooden 
crib  of  the  Saviour  preserved  in  Rome,  champions  the  reality 
of  the  discovery  of  Helena  and  the  genuineness  of  the  relic- 
crosses  of  a  Gregory  the  Great,  and  thereby  calls  forth  the 
adverse  criticism  of  his  Protestant  opponents.^  Specially  do 
controversies  and  investigations  begin  to  concentrate  upon 
our  subject  from  the  time  when  JUSTUS  Lipsius  in  Louvain 
(t  1606) — not  to  be  regarded  as  a  narrow-minded  apologete 
of  the  Romish  traditional  position,  but  rather  one  who  from 
time  to  time  offered  to  the  less  temperate  advocates  of  this 
position  occasion  for  attack  upon  his  sceptical-critical  mode 
of  proceeding — imparted  by  his  three  books  "  Of  the  Cross  " 
the  first  impulse  to  a  more  philologically  exact  treatment  of 
the  archaeology  of  the  history  of  the  Lord's  passion,  and,  by 
giving  currency  to  expressions  such  as  crux  unniissa,  couiniissa, 
decussata,  etc.,  distinguished  himself  as  the  legislative  creator 
of  a  peculiar  terminology  for  this  domain.^  Partly  as  carrying 
to  completion  this  preparatory  work  of  Lipsius,  partly  as  a 
reply  to  the  attacks  of  Protestant  polemical  writers,  directed 
against  the  Romish  doctrines  or  traditions  regarding  the  cross, 
as  those  of  Joh.  Marbach,  Rud.  Hospinian,  Lambert  Daneeus, 
Francis  Junius,  etc./  did  the  Jesuit  James  Gretser  (born  at 

'  Baronii  Annal.  Ecdes.,  e.g.,  ann.  599,  No.  26  ;  603,  14;  604,  4,  etc.  — Comp. 
Bellavmine,  Dispntatt.  de  cgyitrov.  fidci,  iv.  2  ;  on  this  latter  also  Penone,  Prcclect. 
Theoll.,  vi.  §  163. 

^  De  cmce  libri,  iii.  Antverp.,  1595  ;  Amstel.,  1670 ;  Vesal.,  1675,  and  else- 
where. 

'  Comp.  Gretser's  reply  to  these  opponents  in  the  Mantissa  appended  to  the 
first  vol.  of  his  work  De  Ci'itce  (No.  1 1  :  Apologia  pro  S.  Cruce  advers.  Franc. 
Junii   caviUationes),  as  well   as  in  the  third  vol.,   lib.  iii.  :  Advers.  tres  S.  Crucis 


304  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Markdorf  in  South  Swabla,  1562,  died  professor  at  Ingol- 
stadt,  1625)  undertake,  in  his  voluminous  monograph  upon  the 
cross,  a  comprehensive  historic-archaeological  and  dogmatic- 
polemical  vindication  of  the  traditions  of  his  Church  relating 
to  this  subject/  The  whole  controversial  material  bearing  on 
the  question  is  treated  by  him,  especially  in  the  third  edition 
of  his  work,  now  swollen  to  the  dimensions  of  three  stout 
quarto  volumes,'^  with  a  thoroughness  and  completeness,  for 
his  age,  really  exhaustive  of  the  subject.  The  work  opens 
with  a  dissertation  upon  the  cross  of  the  Lord,  its  nails, 
footboard,  title,  etc.,  in  which  he  for  the  most  part  bases  his 
conclusions  upon  the  researches  of  Lipsius,  but  to  a  great 
extent  also  corrects  or  supplements  these  researches  in 
accordance  with  the  prescribed  standard  of  Romish  tradition 
and  legend.  This  is  followed  by  the  historic-apologetic  con- 
sideration of  the  pictorial  representations  of  the  cross  and 
crucifix  in  ancient  and  modern  times.  As  a  third  book  there 
is  added,  at  least  in  the  second  bulky  edition,  a  collection  of 
the  different  appearings  of  miraculous  crosses  as  heavenly 
signs,  according  to  ancient  as  well  as  modern  tradition. 
Book  fourth  further  pursues  the  miraculous  effects  of  the 
symbol  of  salvation,  by  means  of  a  special  study  of  the  cross 
described  with  the  hand  (the  crux  transiens)  and  its  magic 
powers.  Book  fifth,  forming  a  point  of  attachment  with  the 
mystic  and  ascetic  literature  of  earlier  and  later  times,  treats 
of  the  spiritual  cross,  in  the  sense  of  Matt.  xvi.  24.     To  these 

calumniatores,  Hospinianum  et  Danseum  Calvinianum,  Marbachiumque  praedi- 
cantem  Lutheranum  (p.  257  sqq.). 

'  Jacobi  Gretseri,  S.J.,  De  Cruce  Christi  rebusque  ad  earn  pertinentibus,  libri  iv. 
Ingolstadii,  1598  (2  vols,  in  4to). — As  appendices  to  this  first  vol.  afterwards 
appeared  :  1600,  a  torn,  ii.,  in  quo  varia  Gracorum  encomiastica  monnmenta 
Gmco-Latina  de  SS.  Cruce  continentur,  nunc  primum  ex  variis  bibliothecis  eruta, 
etc.  ;  and,  1605,  a  torn,  iii.,  quinque  libris  comprehensus,  quorum  \.  est  de 
iiummis  crucigcris ;  2.  de  cruciatis  expcditionibus ;  3.  de  tisu  et  cultu  S.  Crucis, 
contra  hwreticos ;  4.  hymn,  et  encomia  Gracorum  et  Latinoruni  de  cruce  continet  ; 
5.  Paralipoinena  ad.  t.  i. 

-  Ingolst.  1608  (here  the  first  vol.  especially  very  thick,  enlarged  to  more  than 
double  its  original  size). — In  the  complete  edition  of  Gretser's  works  (Regensb.. 
1734 — 1 741)  the  three  tomes  De  Cruce  form  the  first  three  of  the  splendid  series  of 
seventeen  fol.  volumes. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  305 

there  is  added  a  comprehensive  apparatus  of  learned  supple- 
ments, excurses,  mantissas,  etc.,  occupying  the  last  two  of 
those  three  quarto  volumes,  and  containing  a  great  number 
of  documents  in  prose  and  poetry  (in  part  before  unpublished) 
belonging  to  the  devotional  literature  of  the  cross  (sermons 
and  hymns),  as  also  pictorial  representations  and  descriptions 
of  the  cross,  as  occurring  upon  early  Christian  coins  and 
inscriptions,  a  detailed  history  and  apology  for  the  crusades, 
and  many  similar  things.  The  diligence  in  compiling  dis- 
played in  connection  with  this  colossal  work  merits  in  reality 
the  admiring  recognition  bestowed  upon  it  by  men  like 
Petavius,  Muratori,  etc.,  and  the  more  so,  in  that  but  few  of 
the  aids  then  at  all  accessible  for  the  prosecution  of  this 
investigation  have  escaped  the  keenly  observant  eye  of  the 
learned  Jesuit.  As,  for  instance, — though  not  in  a  position 
to  avail  himself  of  the  results  of  the  researches  of  his  Roman 
contemporary  Bosio  (f  1629)  within  the  catacombs — he  has 
to  some  good  effect  availed  himself  of  that  which  an  Occo 
(1579)  had  effected  just  before  his  time  for  the  numismatics 
of  the  Roman  imperial  age.  Of  scientific  criticism  there  is 
not,  it  is  true,  a  trace  to  be  found  upon  any  point  in  his  work. 
His  research  moves  only  in  the  direction  of  compilation,  never 
in  that  of  sifting  and  elucidating.  Even  the  most  absurd 
legends  and  miracle-histories  he  asks  his  readers  confidingly 
to  receive,  provided  they  accord  with  his  apologetic  aim  and 
interest.  Staurolatry  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  the 
adoration  of  the  cross  as  a  worthy,  yea  absolutely  necessary, 
object  of  Christian  devotion,  he  feels  himself  called  to  teach 
and  preach — he  who  was  born  on  a  Good  Friday,  and  from  his 
youth  up  has  been  filled  with  ardent  enthusiasm  for  the  sacred 
symbol!  The  cross  of  Christ  is  for  him  "a.  real  Divine  power, 
invested  with  dominion  over  heaven,  earth,  and  hell,"  a  dis- 
penser ^'of  long  life  for  them  that  love  it,  but  of  a  life  exceed- 
ingly short  and  of  sudden  end  for  its  foes  and  contemners."  ^ 

'  Vere  enim  crax  Christi  cceli,  terrse,  Erebique,  et  vitae  necisque  potens  et  Domina 
est,  figura  omnium  perfectissima  et  absolutissima,  longaevseque  datrix  vitce,  si 
crucem  ames,  brevissimoe  autem,  si  spernas  eamque  amplecti  recuses.  (Lib.  i., 
c.  43  Sid  Jin.) 

20 


306  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Partly  side  by  side  with  Gretser,  so  that  he  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  turning  their  labours  to  account,  partly  following  in 
his  footsteps  and  defending  or  supplementing  that  which  was 
set  forth  by  him,  was  our  subject  treated  by  the  following 
writers :  Augustine   Fivizanius,  Alfons  Ciacconius,  Giacomo 
Bosio  (uncle  to   the   renowned    explorer   of  the    catacombs, 
Antonio    B.),    Ricci    (Collaert),    Daniel    Malloni,    Cornelius 
Curtius,  Barthold  Nihusius  (Niehues),  Nicquet,  Joseph  Maria 
Carraccioli,   Francis   Ouaresmius,  and  other  Romish  theolo-  . 
gians,  from  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  to  about  the  middle  of 
the   seventeenth  century.     Their  labours    consist  in  part   of 
monographs  of  more  modest  dimensions,  in  which,  as,  e.g.,  in 
the   tractates    of   Niehues    and    Curtius,    where  the    disqui- 
sition   turns    upon    the    nails,   or,  as    in    those    of   Nicquet 
and  Carraccioli,  upon   the  superscription  (the  tItXx)';)  of  the 
Lord,  one  or  other  special  point  of  the  archceologia  criicis  is 
discussed  ;    in  part  of  works  of  more  imposing  calibre  and 
more  sumptuous    execution,  to   which   order  belong  in  par- 
ticular the  dissertations  of  G.  Bosio  and  Bartholom.  Ricci, 
entitled  after   the   precedent  furnished    by  Savonarola  "the 
Triumph  of  the  Cross  " — the  latter  of  these  a  hagiological 
edition  de  luxe,  embellished    with  numerous    engravings   by 
Adrian  Collaert,  devoted  to  the  description  of  the  sufferings 
of  Catholic  martyrs  put  to  death  upon    crosses  of  all  ages, 
down  to  modern  times.^     In  point  of  critico-scientific  value, 
most  of  them  cannot  even  be  considered  to   stand  on  a  par 
with  the  work  of  Gretser.     Some,  as  those  of  Malloni  and 
Quaresmius  relating  to  the  wound-marks  of  Christ,  appear 
to  have  been  limited  in  their  circulation  to  Italy  alone,  and 
to  have  speedily  fallen  into  oblivion,  for  the  reason  that  no 
scientific  value  whatever  attaches  to  them.^ 

'  TriumphusJ.  Christicrucifixi,cumiconibiis7nartyriitn.  Antv.  1614.  Comp. 
above,  ch.  iii.,  p.  112. 

*  Dan.  Malloni,  Ehiddationcs  in  stigviata  D.  n.  J.  Chrisii.  Venet.  1606. 
Francisc.  Quaresmius  (Guardian.  Hiercsolymit.  et  commissar.  Terrse  S.,  t. 
1 660)  :  De  quinque  vulneribiis  D.  n.  J.  Christi,  varia,  pia,  et  luculenta  tractatio. 
Venet.,  5  tom.  in  fol.  (!),  1652.— On  the  other  above-mentioned  contemporaries  or 
successors  of  Gretser,  see  the  account  of  the  literature  at  the  close  of  the  Preface. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  307 

On  the  Protestant  side,  opposition  was  raised  to  the  Romish 
glorification  of  the  cross  and  the  sensuous  idolatrous  cultus 
rendered  to  it  on  the  part  of  the  Catholic  Church  from  the 
time  of  Constantine  downwards :  in  a  more  comprehensive 
and  systematic  manner  by  CONRAD  Decker  in  his  "  Romish 
Staurolatry"  (1617),  in  part  also  as  early  as  the  time  of  JOH. 
Arndt,  in  his  treatise  "  Of  the  right  Use  and  the  Abuse  of 
[mages"  (1596),  directed  mainly  against  the  members  of  the 
Reformed  community  in  Anhalt ;  later  by  Baudis,  Wildvogel, 
and  other  German  Lutheran  theologians  ;  ^  with  a  more 
special  tendency,  and  with  reference  only  to  single  points,  by 
the  learned  Reformed  polemicists  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
specially  by  SalmaSIUS  (f  1653),  i^  his  three  letters  on  the 
Cross,  addressed  to  the  Danish  Court  Physician  Bartholiniis 
— letters  in  which  the  story  of  Helena's  discovery,  the  tradi- 
tions concerning  the  nails  of  Christ,  the  resting-block  and 
footboard  of  the  cross,  etc.,  are  subjected  to  a  severe  critical 
handling  ;  ^  farther  by  DallJiUS  (t  1670),  whose  comprehen- 
sive polemical  work  on  the  degenerate  cultus  tradition  of  the 
Latins  devotes  a  separate  book  to  the  sensuous  cultus  of  the 
cross,  in  which  the  origin  of  this  cultus  only  after  the  age 
of  Constantine  is  demonstrated  with  an  almost  excessively 
lavish  application  of  acumen  and  learning ;  ^  nor  less  so  by 
the  learned  brothers  Spanheim;  Ezekiel  (f  1710),  author  of 
a  discourse  or  treatise  on  the  Cross  of  the  Lord,  published 
in  Latin,  as  afterwards  in  French,  in  1655  ;  and  Frederic 
(t  1701)  author  (1686)  of  the  apology  for  Dallaeus'  critique  on 
the  Roman  image-worship — an  apology  directed  against  the 

'  Conr.  Deckeri,  De  siaurolafria  Romana,  libri  ii.  Hanov.  161 7.  8vo.  (Tluis 
published  in  Germany,  not — as  wrongly  supposed — at  Rome.) — ^John  Arndt, 
Iconographia  :  griindlicher  und  christlicher  Bericht  von  Bildern,  etc.  (1596). — And. 
Baudis,  Crux  Christi  ex  historiartwi  monumentis  coiistritcta.  Viteb.  1669, — Chr. 
Wildvogel,  De  ven.  Signo  Crucis.    Jen.  1690. 

'■^  De  cruce,  epistolte  tres  ad  Bartholinum.  (In  Th.  Bartholini,  De  latere  ChrisH 
cipcrto  diss.,  1646 — comp.  the  De  cruce  Christi^  hypomnemata  ii.  of  the  latter, 
Havn.  1651.) 

^  Adversus  Latinorum  de  cultus  religiosi  ohjecto  traditionem,  libri  v.  (Tom.  ii., 
pp.  704 — 799,  ed.  Genev.  1665.) 


308  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Catholics    Maimbourg'   and    Noel;    in    like   manner   also   by 
Witsius,  and  many  others/ 

With  the  dawn  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  examinations 
devoted  to  our  subject  begin  to  assume  a  more  pacific 
character.  The  polemical  interest  begins  to  fall  behind  the 
historic  archseologic.  Catholics,  Lutherans,  Reformed,  devote 
themselves  to  a  joint  labour,  or  at  least  to  a  calm  and 
passionless  rivalry,  in  the  investigation  of  the  art  monuments, 
church  customs,  etc.,  of  the  early  Christians  and  of  the 
Mediaeval  Church  ;  amidst  which  a  not  inconsiderable  portion 
of  sound  study  falls  to  the  lot  of  our  subject.  It  is  the  time 
in  which,  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics — leaving  out  of  account 
the  further  prosecution  of  Bosio's  explorations  in  the  cata- 
combs by  Fabretti,  Boldetti,  Bottari,  Marangoni,  etc. — a 
Muratori  made  the  cross  of  Nola,  Phil,  de  Venutis  that  of 
Cortona,  Paciandi  the  crosses  and  crucifixes  of  Ravenna, 
Stephen  Borgia  the  Vatican  and  the  Veliternian  cross,  Giorgi, 
Gori,  and  others  the  monograms  of  Christ,  the  object  of 
learned  monographic  representations  ;  while  on  the  Protestant 
side,  ^.^.,  the  primitive  Christian  monogram  was  treated  of  by 
Mencken,  Helena's  finding  of  the  cross  by  J.  A.  Schmid,  the 
early  ecclesiastical  -custom  of  crossing  oneself  by  Fulda  and 
others,  a  gilded  crucifix  of  great  value  for  the  history  of 
Christian  art  by  Joh.  E.  Imm.  Walch,  etc.^  The  way  is  thus 
prepared  for  the  investigation  of  our  own  age,  so  much  more 
plentifully  supplied  with  apparatus  and  aids,  as  well  as  so 
much  more  abundant  in  results  of  many-sided  importance, 
the  age  of  the  brilliant  labours  of  a  Miinter,  Piper,  Zester- 
mann,  Rochette,  Didron,  Garrucci,  De  Rossi,  etc.  That  the 
deeply  stirred  interconfessional  polemic  of  the  century  of  the 
Reformation  has  directly  prepared  the  way  for  these  endea- 
vours of  most  recent  times,  by  supplying  the  first  impulse 
to  the  scientific  examination  of  the  materials  in  question, 
is,  in  the  bulk  of  cases,  no  longer  to  be  recognised  from  its 

'  Ezech.  Spanheim,  Di scows  siir  la  croix  de  notre  Seigneur.  Geii.  1655. — Fr. 
Spanhemii,  Historia  imagimim  restituta,  contra  Nat.  Alexandrum  et  Lud.  Maivi- 
hurgium.     Lugd.  Bat.  1686. — H.  Witsii,  Misccllan.  sacra,  ii.  364. 

^  See  the  account  of  the  literature  at  the  close  of  the  Preface. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  309 

tendency  and  nature.  Yet  even  to  the  present  day  the 
Italian  and  French  archaeologists  of  the  Romish  confession 
proceed  with  regard  to  certain  chronological  questions  (esti- 
mate of  the  antiquity  of  particular  inscriptions,  figures, 
monograms,  etc.),  to  some  extent  in  a  different  manner  than 
the  Protestant  Germans.  Just  as  in  other  respects  too,  e.g.,  as 
concerns  the  aesthetic  estimate  of  this  or  that  ancient  Christian 
or  Mediaeval  work  of  art,  there  are  still  to  be  recognised  after- 
effects of  the  confessional  difference,  by  which  our  special 
domain  too  is  affected  to  an  important  extent. 

Even  within  the  bounds  of  Protestant  Christianity,  contro- 
versies as  to  the  use  or  non-use  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in 
worship  have  continued  in  some  measure  to  our  own  time. 
As  about  the  middle  of  last  century  the  practice  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  on  this  point  had  to  be  defended  in  divers 
ways  as  good  and  praiseworthy,  in  opposition  to  the  attacks 
of  the  Reformed  theologians  {e.g.,  by  J.  J.  Chr.  Fulda  in  a 
Leipzig  dissertation,  1759),^  so  even  in  the  present  century 
did  Claus  Harms  of  Kiel  once  allow  himself  to  be  betrayed 
into  a  recommendation  of  the  use  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in 
place  of  prayer,  a  recommendation  wanting  in  the  necessary 
sobriety  and  of  questionable  catholicising  tendency,  for  which 
he  was  more  than  once  called  to  account.  "  Do  not,"  he  once 
exclaimed  to  his  hearers,  "  do  not  in  the  hour  of  temptation 
depend  upon  words  or  thoughts  alone  !  Do  more,  and  defend 
yourselves  with  the  holy  cross.  Powers  of  assuaging  does 
the  holy  cross  bring  with  it  ...  .  The  world  does  not  always 
leave  us  time  to  think  of  our  devotions,  .  .  .  but  a  moment 
is  gained  to  make  a  cross,"  etc., — an  utterance  at  all  events 
not  to  be  characterised  as  without  qualification,  and  in  every 
respect  genuinely  Lutheran,  which  has  been,  moreover,  even 
within  the  most  recent  times,  and  within  the  circle  of  Lutheran 
theological  literature  itself,  frequently  the  subject  of  unfavour- 
able criticism. 


'  See,  on  the  Reformed  side,  E.  H.  Zeibich,  Z)iss.  de  signo  crucis  e  templis 
nostris  eliminando.  Viteb.,  1735,  on  the  Lutheran,  J.  Jul.  Chr.  F(ulda^,  De 
crucis  signacitlo,  Christianaruiii  prectini  coinite  destinato.     Lips.  1 759- 


lO  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 


c.    THE  IDEA  OF  THE  CROSS  IN  MODERN  ART,  RELIGIOUS 
POETRY,  AND  SPECULATION. 

Modern  Christian  art  has  in  part  remained  unaffected  by 
the  purified  and  spirituaHsed  idea  of  the  cross  introduced  at 
the  Reformation,  in  part  been  more  or  less  powerfully  influ- 
enced thereby.  The  former  is,  as  might  be  expected,  in  a 
special  degree  the  case  with  the  art  of  the  Romish  Church. 
Yet  even  she  very  energetically  favours,  till  towards  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  some  of  its  principal 
domains,  and  particularly  that  of  painting,  with  results  of 
some  importance,  that  tendency  of  a  nobler  renaissance  which 
is  inwardly  akin  to  that  of  the  Reformation,  and  may  be 
regarded  as  the  normal  development  of  the  truly  sound 
and  great  ecclesiastical  productions  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
That  which  Fiesole  and  Van  Eyck  introduced  in  its  funda- 
mental principles  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
tendency  to  mystic  idealisation  and  vigorous  expression  of 
the  truly  human  in  the  representations  of  the  Passion,  was 
first  able  to  bring  forth  its  ripened  fruits  in  full  maturity  only 
in  the  two  following  centuries.  The  triumphs  of  the  cross  in 
the  domains  of  architecture  and  sculpture,  which  fall  entirely 
within  the  Middle  Ages;  are  now  succeeded  at  the  threshold 
of  the  new  age  by  a  brilliant  series  of  corresponding  triumphs 
on  the  field  of  painting.  The  period  from  Rafael  to  Murillo 
includes  within  itself  the  highest  and  best  which  ecclesiastical 
art  has  yet  produced  in  the  form  of  painted  representations 
of  the  scene  of  the  Crucifixion,  and  of  the  Passion.  Catholic 
masters  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  the  Netherlands  vie.  in  their  pro- 
foundly penetrating  symbolisation  of  the  mystery  of  redemp- 
tion, with  the  Protestants  of  Germany  and  Holland.  With  a 
Rafael,  Correggio,  Guido  Reni,  Rubens,  etc.,  do  Albert  Diirer, 
L.  Cranach,  Hans  Holbein  the  younger,  and  P.  Rembrandt 
dispute  the  palm  of  the  cross.  To  the  creations  justly  most 
celebrated  in  this  domain  belong :  a  representation  of  the 
Passion  by  Bernardino  Luini,  disciple  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci ; 
a  descent   from  the  cross,  or  a  mourning  over  the  body  of 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION,  3 1  I 

Christ  by  Mary  Magdalene  and  John,  of  Fra  Bartolomeo  ;  a 
similar  one,  producing  a  deeply  moving  effect,  by  Daniel  di 
Volterra ;  a  Christ  on  the  cross,  represented  with  face  up- 
turned to  heaven,  as  victor  over  grave  and  death,  by  Michael 
Angelo  ;  a  sepulture  by  Perugino,  the  teacher  of  Rafael ;  also 
by  Rafael  himself  a  cross-bearing  (markedly  imitated  from  a 
woodcut  in  Diirer's  great  Passion,  thus  a  work  of  kindred 
spirit  with  that  of  the  earliest  and  noblest  master  of  German- 
Protestant  art),  as  also  a  sepulture,  a  glorification  too  of 
Constantine's  victory  through  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the 
battle  at  the  Milvian  Bridge ;  further,  by  Correggio,  the 
celebrated  thorn-crowned  head  of  Christ  upon  the  handker- 
chief of  Veronica,  the  only  serious  picture  of  this  master,  but 
also  his  best ;  by  Titian  a  crowning  with  thorns,  and  a  sepulture ; 
by  Tintoretto  a  crucifixion  scene,  remarkable  for  its  excessively 
affecting  pathos,  verging  indeed  upon  an  unhealthy  straining 
after  effect ;  by  the  two  Caracci,  as  well  as  by  Guido  Reni, 
celebrated  representations  of  the  thorn-crowned  and  crucified 
Christ,  among  which,  particularly  the  crucifixion  scene  of  the 
latter,  preserved  in  the  gallery  of  paintings  at  Bologna,  is 
justly  famous  for  its  simply  majestic  and  yet  touching  ex- 
pression. Side  by  side  with  these  products  of  the  Italian 
schools  of  painting  stand  on  the  same  level  several  works  of 
great  Spanish  masters :  Zurbaran's  Mary  and  John  at  the 
sepulchre  of  the  Lord  ;  Alonso  Cano's  Christ  on  the  cross ; 
the  bewailing  of  the  body  of  Jesus  taken  away,  by  the  same 
master;  above  all,  Murillo's  embracing  of  the  feet  of  the 
Crucified  by  St.  Francis  in  the  transports  of  religious 
enthusiasm.  Several  of  the  creations,  too,  of  the  Brabant 
school  of  the  seventeenth  century,  having  reference  to  our 
subject,  are  no  less  masterpieces  of  the  first  rank.  So  Rubens' 
descent  from  the  cross,  in  the  Cathedral  at  Antwerp — of  all 
the  works  of  that  highly  gifted  master  indeed  the  most 
perfect ;  Anton  van  Dyck's  lamentation  over  the  body  of 
Christ ;  by  the  same  master,  Christ  bearing  His  cross,  the 
crucified  Saviour,  and  others.  As  regards  the  number  of 
their  successful  efforts,  the  representives  of  the  Protestant  art 


312  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  Germany  and  Holland  are  not,  it  is  true,  able  to  rival 
these  coryphaei  of  the  later  Catholic  art,  but  as  regards  the 
intrinsic  value  of  their  productions  they  are  fully  on  a  level 
with  them.  In  many  respects  they  even  surpass  them ; 
especially  in  point  of  simple  dignity,  inner  sense  of  truth, 
the  avoiding  of  false  pathos,  and  a  disturbing  straining  after 
effect.  In  proof  we  may  adduce  Diirer's  Christ  the  Crucified 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Holy  Trinity ;  by  the  same  master,  the 
Saviour  crowned  with  thorns  sitting  mourning  upon  a  stone 
by  the  way,  in  the  greater  series  of  woodcuts  upon  the 
Passion  ;  by  the  same,  a  colossal  thorn-crowned  head  executed 
in  woodcut ;  the  crucifixion,  by  Lucas  Cranach  the  elder 
(Luther  and  Cranach  himself  standing  at  the  foot  of  the 
Crucified)  ;  the  crucifixion,  by  Holbein  the  younger,  "  one  of 
the  most  classic  and  majestic  productions  of  German  art." 
Rembrandt's  "  descent  from  the  cross,"  a  worthy  companion 
to  that  of  a  Rubens,  renowned  for  its  wonderfully  effective 
distribution  of  light  and  shade,  and  particularly  on  this  account 
a  powerful  "  northern  counterpart  to  Correggio's  southern 
brightness  in  his  miracles  of  colour."  ^ 

It  is  evident  from  this  brief  glance  round,  which  might 
easily  be  extended  to  the  compass  of  a  considerable  gallery 
of  pictures  characteristic  for  the  history  of  the  art,  how  modern 
religious  art  still  continues  to  be  dominated  by  an  irresistible 
attraction  to  the  grace-diffusing  foundation  fact  of  salvation, 
yea,  how  precisely  its  greatest  exponents  have  laboured  to 
place  their  greatest  and  best  at  the  feet  of  the  Crucified.  The 
action  and  reaction,  too,  between  the  Protestant  and  the 
Catholic  art-execution,  as  it  shows  itself  specially  fruitful, 
and  presents  itself  in  its  higher  necessity  upon  the  particular 
domain  before  us,  is  admirably  illustrated  by  several  of  the 
instances  afforded  in  the  above  survey.  Even  a  Rafael  is 
able  to  learn  something  from  the  vigorous  profundity  of  a 
Durer;  and,  conversely,  the  Germans  and  the  Netherlanders 
need  in  our  domain  of  art  less  than  in  any  other  to  withdraw 
from  the  influence  of  the  Italian  style,  in  order  to  give  ex- 

Caniere,  Die  Kiinst,  vi,  356 ;  comp.  205,  etc. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  313 

pression  to  their  innermost  religious  feeling.  The  common 
love  to  the  Saviour,  the  strong  attraction  to  the  Crucified, 
preserves  them  on  this  domain,  amidst  what  is  in  other 
respects  an  often  wide  divergency  of  their  tendencies,  in  a 
remarkable  manner  at  one  with  each  other. 

This  relation  exists,  so  long  as  the  renaissance  of  a  nobler 
order  and  tendency  in  Catholic  art  prevails,  or  at  least  still 
continues  to  present  itself  From  the  time  of  the  predomi- 
nating of  the  spurious  renaissance,  that  of  the  unnaturally  stiff 
or  baroqite  style  of  the  Jesuits — which  began  to  spread  with 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  at  first  in  the  domains  of 
architecture  and  sculpture,  but  in  the  course  of  the  seventeenth 
extended  its  sway  over  that  of  painting  too — the  possibility 
of  a  friendly  advance  of  a  freer  and  purer  evangelical  art-taste 
side  by  side  with  that  of  the  Romish  art-schools  has  altogether 
ceased.  The  latter  turn  away  more  and  more  from  the  ideal 
of  the  Christ  at  all,  to  devote  their  principal  attention  to 
one-sidedly  Romish  ecclesiastical  ideals,  representations  of  the 
assumption  or  immaculate  conception  of  Mary,  of  the  glory 
of  the  pope  crowned  with  the  triple  crown,  and  that  of  his 
cardinals,  as  well  as  that  of  the  countless  host  of  church 
saints  of  both  sexes.  "  Saints  impaled,  roasted,  fiayed,  in 
whom  the  fanaticism  of  the  Inquisition  expresses  itself,"  more 
and  more  replace  the  august  heavenly  form  of  the  Crucified. 
St.  Sebastian,  bound  naked  upon  a  tree,  and  pierced  with 
countless  arrows ;  St.  Lawrence,  roasted  upon  the  gridiron  ; 
St.  Bartholomew,  flayed  alive;  in  like  manner  those  put  to 
death  on  crosses  of  different  forms — crosses  of  St.  Andrew, 
inverted  crosses  of  St.  Peter,  malefactors'  crosses,  etc.,  as 
Collaert  drew  them  for  Ricci's  Triumph  of  Jesus  Christ  tne 
Crucified  :  these  are  the  favourite  figures  of  this  rudely 
naturalistic  school  of  art,  surrendering  itself  as  it  does  to  the 
cultus  of  masses  of  flesh,  of  the  baroque,  the  crass,  and  the 
horrible,  in  the  studies  of  which  there  remains  scarcely  so 
much  as  a  corner  to  spare  for  simply  beautiful  and  faithful 
representations  of  the  Redeemer. — A  genuine  evangelical  art 
keeping  clearly  before  it  its  principle  and  its  tasks,  could 


314  I'HE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

certainly  never  have  entered  along  with  Rome  upon  the 
course  of  this  tendency  to  the  utterly  stiff  and  distorted 
Spanish  style.  But  yet,  as  having  ceased  to  be  inwardly 
free  and  transparent,  being  held  down  by  unfavourable  out- 
ward relations,  and  led  away  from  its  true  aim,  the  religious 
activity  even  of  our  own  (Lutheran)  Church  for  more  than 
a  century,  fell,  too,  to  no  small  extent,  into  the  same  melan- 
choly errors.  This  is  clearly  testified  by  the  outer  and  inner 
condition  of  our  places  of  worship,  from  the  time  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  until  after  the  middle  of  last  century,  and  in 
particular  is  shown  by  numerous  examples  from  the  condition 
of  the  altar-crucifixes,  passion-paintings,  etc.,  belonging  to 
that  period.  It  is  only  in  the  present  century,  simultaneously 
with  the  purifying  renewal  of  Roman  Catholic  art  proceeding 
from  an  Overbeck  and  a  Cornelius,  that  in  Protestant  Chris- 
tendom also  an  artistic  creation  of  higher  beauty,  of  rarer 
severity  of  form,  and  fresher  fulness  of  life,  has  begun  to 
flourish — a  creation  in  the  products  of  which  it  is  true,  the 
majestic  figure  of  the  Crucified  no  longer  in  the  same  degree 
forms  the  all-dominating  central  and  culminating  point  as 
with  the  venerable  German  masters  of  the  period  of  the 
Reformation,  but  yet  in  principle  maintains  the  same  position 
as  with  them,^  and  is  apprehended  and  treated  in  a  manner  in 
harmony  with  the  purified  evangelical  conceptions  of  the 
essence  and  kernel  of  salvation. 

A  connection  of  close  community,  or  at  least  relations 
of  near  affinity,  exists  too  in  the  domain  of  modern  spiri- 
tual Music,  between  the  nobler  and  better  productions  of 
the  Romish  Church  and  those  of  the  Evangelical.  Of  a 
■•■musical  glorification  of  the  cross  in  the  literal  sense  we 
cannot  of  course  speak.  But  the  Crucified  One  and  His 
passion  have  become,  for  the  entire  development  of  the 
musical  art  in  modern  times,  a  motive  of  predominant  im- 
portance, essentially  as  much  so  as  in  former  times  for  that  of 
architecture,   sculpture,  and  painting.     A  series   of  glorious 

'  Compare,  ^.^.,  Gust.  Konig's  Psalm  pictures  to  Psalm  xxii.,  Cornelius'  great 
cartoon  of  the  Crucifixion,  in  the  Ludwigskirche  at  Munich;  also  Thorwaldsen's 
Entry  of  Jesus  into  Jerusalem,  and  the  Cross-bearing,  etc. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  3  I  5 

cteations,  from  Palestrina's  Improperia  and  Allegri's  Misei'ere 
down  to  Bach's  Passion  of  Matthew  and  of  John,  to  Handel  s 
Messiah,  to  Graun's  cantata  "  The  Death  of  Jesus,"  and  to 
Beethoven's  Missa  solenmis,  clearly  enough  demonstrate  this 
fact.  Protestant  ecclesiastical  art  has  on  this  domain  too  learnt 
much  from  the  Romish  masters  and  exemplars.  Its  noblest 
and  best,  indeed,  it  owes  to  the  pristine  vigour  of  its  own 
power  and  to  the  immediate  descent  into  the  purifying  depths 
of  evangelical  truth  and  fulness  of  life.  To  Luther,  and  his 
friends  Georg  Rhau  and  Hans  Walter,  as  well  as  the  succeed- 
ing creators  and  promoters  of  the  Lutheran  Church  Song 
(Eckart,  Stobaus,  Criiger,  etc.),  do  a  Bach  and  a  Handel,  the 
great  masters  of  the  first  rank  in  the  domain  of  Oratorio  and 
Passion  Music — the  Dante  and  the  Milton  of  music,  as  they 
have  been  admirably  termed — owe  a  more  immediate  incite- 
ment and  a  richer  fulness  of  profound  ideas,  than  to  their 
Italian  predecessors. 

To  the  POETIC  glorification  of  the  cross,  too,  did  the 
post-Reformational  Romish  Christendom  yield  many  a  truly 
beautiful  contribution  ;  so  long  as  the  Jesuitical  spirit  had  not 
yet  entirely  stifled  its  nobler  and  better  consciousness  and  en- 
deavour, an  endeavour  closely  akin  to  that  of  the  Church  of 
the  Reformation.  Testimonies  for  the  justice  of  this  assertion 
are  furnished  on  the  one  hand  by  the  Latin  hymns  and 
sequence  poetry  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
to  which  alike  many  classically  learned  Protestant  poets,  as 
many  belonging  to  the  Papal  Church,  have  contributed  the 
fruits  of  their  leisure.  Among  these  are  some  writers  of  no 
small  eminence,  such  as  the  Jacob  Montanus  of  Spires  before 
referred  to,  Eobanus  Hessus,  Zacharias  Ferrerius,  Antonius 
Muretus,  Wolfgang  Ammonius  ;  as  in  the  seventeenth  century 
Mezler,  author  of  a  "  Consolation  by  the  Wisdom  of  the 
Cross,"  in  Latin  verses,^  and  the  Munich  Jesuit  James  Balde 
(t  1668),  who  overshadows  them  all,  the  greatest  religious  com- 
poser of  Latin  poetry  in  modern  times,  who  made  not  only 
the  blessed  Virgin,  but  also  the  suffering  and  dying  Saviour, 

'  De  CoHsolationc  Stairrosophia.     Carmina.     Constant.  1650.     i6mo. 


3l6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

the  object  of  prolonged  meditations  of  a  highly  poetic  cha- 
racter, especially  in  his  "  Philomele,  oder  sterbende  Nachti- 
gall"  (1644).  To  this  place,  on  the  other  hand,  belong  the 
Italian  or  Spanish  compositions  of  some  of  those  noble,  evan- 
gelically minded  spirits,  who,  although  through  the  adverse 
nature  of  outward  circumstances  or  the  constraint  of  the 
Inquisition  they  were  retained  in  the  bosom  of  the  Romish 
Church,  were  yet  from  their  heart  attached  to  the  Gospel,  or 
in  any  case  were  not  far  removed  from  the  purer  evangelical 
knowledge.  What  can  be  more  thoughtful  and  lovely  than 
the  sonnet  of  VlTTORiA  COLONNA,  which  celebrates  the  heal- 
ing and  protecting  power  of  the  Tree  of  Life  .'' 

The  ivy,  reft  of  that  support  in  climbing, 
On  which  she  leans  so  fondly  in  ascending, 
Tremblingly  sways  in  place  of  upward  tending, 
Feels  herself  earthward  drawn,  and  lies  reclining. 

The  soul,  which  charmed  by  sense,  deception  pleasing, 
Lets  the  earth  drown  pure  thoughts  and  impulse  higher, 
Must  wrestle  in  unsatisfied  desire. 
In  rise  and  fall,  weak,  helpless,  and  unceasing — 

Till  in  the  Tree  of  Life  at  last  abiding. 
Upon  whose  stem  of  safety  upward  soaring. 
Close  linked  in  root  and  crown  to  this  for  ever. 

She  sees — raised  high,  on  firm  support  confiding — 

The  Father,  who  for  endless  life  in  glory 

First  made  her,  and  whose  grace  does  now  deliver. 

The  sonnets  of  Michael  Angelo,  the  man  of  genius,  friend 
of  this  gifted,  pious,  and  noble  daughter  of  Rome,  give  forth 
to  no  small  extent  the  selfsame  tone.  As  a  man  of  eighty- 
one  years  he  breathes  out  the  ardour  of  his  believing  trust  in 
the  Crucified,  in  a  confession  which  from  beginning  to  end 
might  be  sung  by  a  son  of  the  Evangelical  Church  : 

My  life,  in  its  small  bark  so  frail  and  slender, 
Has  crossed  the  storm-lashed  waves  unto  that  haven 
Where,  for  good  deeds  and  bad  with  which  'tis  laden, 
A  full  account  to  God  it  must  needs  render. 

Now  can  I  see  my  heart,  in  strong  endeavour 
For  idolised  art,  with  warmest  ardour  burning. 
Has  taken  up  sore  burdens,  without  learning 
That  man's  poor  work  is  vain  and  foolish  ever. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  3  F/ 

But  what  to  that  vain  love  a  charm  can  offer, 
Now  that  I  see  a  twofold  death  impending  ! 
The  one's  at  hand,  the  other  near,  and  never 

Can  brush  or  chisel  yield  calm  peace  unto  the  spirit 

Which  seeks  His  love,  zvho  to  the  cross  descending 
Outspread  His  arms,  up  to  Himself  to  raise  us.'' 

Still  more  abundant  is  the  Spanish  religious  poetic  literature 
of  the  sixteenth  century  in  songs  of  special  beauty  bearing 
upon  our  subject.  Who  does  not  know  that  wonderful  sonnet, 
which  certainly  with  justice  is  ascribed,  not  to  Ignatius  Loyola 
or  Francis  Xavier,i  but  to  St.  THERESA,  the  reformer  of  the 
Carmelite  order  and  profound  mystic  writer  : 

I  love  Thee  not,  dear  Lord,  for  thought  of  gaining, 
Nor  for  desire  of  heaven's  eternal  glory  ; 
Nor  could  I,  from  the  dread  of  hell's  dark  story, 
Renounce  the  hope  of  earthly  joys  obtaining. 

It  drew  me,  Lord,  the  sight  of  Thy  deep  anguish. 

The  shame,  the  pain,  for  me  which  Thou  wert  bearing, 

Thy  suffering  form  which  cruel  nails  were  tearing, 

Thy  wound-marked  limbs,  which  then  in  death  did  languish. 

It  was  Thy  love  alone,  dear  Lord,  that  drew  me  : 
Were  there  no  heav'n,  I  would  be  Thine  for  ever. 
My  heart  would  fear,  though  hell  existed  never. 

Thou,  Lord,  and  Thou  alone,  couldst  win  me  to  Thee  ; 

If  what  I  hope  for  were  no  more  remaining. 

Yet  still  my  love  to  Thee  should  know  no  waning. 

The  Spanish  lyric  poets  of  the  cross,  to  which  belong, 
besides  Theresa,  especially  her  spiritual  son  and  disciple,  John 
of  the  Cross,  the  singer  of  the  four  glorious  canciones  of  the 
"  holy  flame  of  love  "  (Llama  de  amor  viva),  as  also  the  man 
endued  with  almost  the  evangelical  spirit  of  the  Reformation, 
Luis  de  Leon/  form  the  immediate  connecting  link  to  the 
great  masters  of  the  DRAMATIC  glorification  of  the  cross  in 
the  seventeenth  century.     With  these  last,  however,  the  limit 

'  As  is  done  by  the  R.C.  convert  Hugo  Lammer  [and  in  the  English  hymnals], 
on  the  testimony  of  some  Jesuit  authorities  of  doubtful  value.  {Coelestis  Urbs 
Hierusalem.     Freib.,  1866,  p.  57.) 

-  Comp.  the  author's  dissertation  Petrus  v.  Alcantara,  Teresia  v.  Avila,  und 
Johannes  vom  Kreuze,  iii.  {Ztschr.  fiir  die gesanunte  hith.  Theologie,  1866,  i.,  S, 
57  f.),  as  well  as  Wilkens,  Fray  Luis  de  Leon,  S,  178  ff. 


3l8  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  that  which  an  evangelical  Christian  heart  can  regard  as 
beautiful,  or  can  employ  as  an  impulse  to  a  devout  aspiration 
towards  the  Redeemer,  is  already  attained.^  Apart  from  the 
rankly  luxuriant  maze  of  legends,  of  late  formation  and  wide 
divergence  from  Biblical  truth,  into  which  they  lead  us,  the 
moral  character  of  their  compositions  is  only  in  part  such 
as  can  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the  principles  of  evan- 
gelical ethics.  Of  the  "  Discovery  of  America,"  the  only  piece 
by  the  lively,  genial,  inexhaustibly  productive  Lope  DE  Vega 
at  all  bearing  upon  our  subject,  we  can  scarcely  any  longer  say 
that  the  cross  is  therein  glorified  in  a  truly  worthy  manner, 
and  one  in  accordance  with  the  worship  of  the  Lord  in  spirit 
and  in  truth.  It  is  only  the  thaumaturgic  side  of  the  symbol 
of  the  cross,  to  which  the  effective  closing  scenes  of  this 
drama  appear  to  be  devoted  :  the  banner  of  the  cross,  raised 
in  accordance  with  truly  Romish,  and  particularly  Jesuitical 
missionary  practice,  in  the  midst  of  the  Indians,  testifies  its 
power  to  the  hosts  of  the  multitude  looking  on  in  wondering 
childish  ignorance,  by  countless  miracles,  and  thus  aids  in 
introducing  their  baptism,  with  the  administration  of  which 
the  succession  of  the  triumphs  of  Columbus  comes  to  a  close. — 
Hardly  a  single  one  of  the  pieces  devoted  by  Calderon  to 
this  subject  affords  to  the  Protestant  reader  who  is  endowed 
with  a  finer  critical  organ  any  pure  and  entirely  satisfactory 
enjoyment.  In  the  "  Visionary  of  the  East"  it  deeply  wounds 
us  that,  in  order  to  obtain  a  perfectly  corresponding  factive 
prediction  of  Christ's  crucifixion  between  the  two  thieves, 
King  Solomon  shows  himself  gracious  and  just,  only  after 
the  manner  of  an  ordinary  barbaric  tyrant :  of  the  two  con- 
demned men,  whose  pardon  is  sought  of  him  by  the  Queen 
of  the  East,  through  the  adoration  of  the  miraculous  wood  of 
the  cross  transported  and  caught  up  to  God,  he  sets  the  one 
indeed  free,  but  causes  the  other,  in  an  entirely  arbitrary 
manner  and  without  reference  to  his  deserts,  to  be  executed. 
The  "  Exaltation  of  the  Cross  "  is  rich  in  specially  effective 
scenes,  which   present  nothing  offensive   to  the    Evangelical 

'  Comp.  the  examples  given  above,  ch.  v.,  p.  210  fif. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  319 

Christian  consciousness  ;  but  that  the   holy  cross,  finally,  can 
be  taken  from  the  Persians  only  by  treachery,  and  that  such 
treachery  as  perpetrated  against  the  Infidels  should  appear  in 
the  light  of  a  benefit  and  noble  deed,  can  scarcely  be  spoken 
of  as  satisfactory.     In  the  "  Devotion  to  the  Cross,"  the  most 
artistic  and  most  finished  in  point  of  form  of  all  Calderon's 
Dramas  of  the  Cross,  the  symbol  of  salvation  appears  entirely 
in  the  character  of  a  fetich  to  the  Church,  the  external  adora- 
tion of  which  secures  impunity  even  for  the  worst  transgres- 
sions.    It  is  the  religion  of  rude  Italian  or  Spanish  banditti 
which  is  here  glorified.     Eusebio,  the  robber,  murderer,  and 
violator  of  maidens,  is  represented  as  pious  after  his  fashion, 
because  he  has  from   his  youth  up  worn  a  cross   upon  his 
breast,  because   he  plants  crosses  upon  the   graves  of  those 
murdered  by  him,  because  he  has  taken  a  vow  to  kneel  before 
every  cross  by  the  wayside,  etc.     It  must  therefore  be  a  cross- 
shaped    plank    by  which    he    is    saved  from    the    impending 
danger  of  destruction  in  a  shipwreck.     And  when,  finally,  as 
he  is  pursued  on  account  of  his  deeds  of  rapine  and  murder, 
he  casts  himself  down  bruised  and  mangled  over  a  rocky 
precipice,  it  is  again  a  cross   standing  there,   the  very  one 
beneath  which  he  once  came  into  the  world,  which  as  it  were 
embraces  him  with   its  delivering  shadow,   and   by  its   mere 
vicinity  obtains  for   him  the    blessed  death  of  the    penitent 
thief,  even  without  confession.     The  first  confessor  who  comes 
up  after  his  death  digs  his  body  out  again  from  the  earth  which 
covers  it,  and  by  a  miracle  restores  him  again  to  life,  to  confess 
before  the  wondering  multitude,  "  My  sins  are  more  in  number 
than  the  motes  in  the  sunbeam,  but  devotion  to  the  cross  has 
delivered  me  before  God's  throne  !  "     Whereupon  he  receives 
the  absolution   of  the   Church,  then  anew  to  die. —  In  pre- 
sence of  so  crass  an  apotheosis  of  the  Romish  superstitious 
degeneration  and  corruption  of  Christianity,  all  attempts   at 
defence  from  the  religiously  or  aesthetically  idealising  point 
of  view  remain  superfluous  and  useless.^     "  It  is  a  glorification 

'  On  such  an  attempt,  compare  the  article,  Die  Andacht  zum  Kreuze,  in  the  Ev. 
Kirchenzcitimg,  1875,  Nos.  15,  16,  in  which  a  vahiable  contribution  is  oftered  to 
the  religious  aesthetic  appreciation  of  the  poem  as  a  whole. 


320  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  heathenism  within  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the 
execution  of  which  is  marked  by  high  poetic  power"  ^ — more 
cannot  be  said  in  favour  of  the  piece.  Only  the  fact  that  the 
poet  has  elsewhere  repeatedly  given  expression  to  a  purer  and 
more  worthy  conception  of  the  Christian  salvation  and  symbol 
of  salvation,  may  serve  to  qualify  our  judgment  upon  his 
moral  bearing  on  the  whole.  It  can  also  hardly  be  asserted  — 
inasmuch  as  such  an  open  confession  of  heathen  doctrines 
and  sentiments  on  the  one  hand  was  ventured  on  by  him  only 
on  this  single  occasion,  and  on  the  other  has  remained  more 
or  less  foreign  to  the  rest  of  the  poetic  literature  of  modern 
Catholicism — that  the  aforesaid  composition  ever  became 
typical  for  any  considerable  number  of  similar  utterances  on 
the  part  of  his  own  Church.  The  spirit  of  Jesuitism,  which 
like  a  parasite  growth  of  deadly  nature  gradually  sucks  up 
and  stifles  the  nobler  life  of  Romish  Christendom,  has  it  is 
true  in  the  domain  of  prose  literature  diffused  similar  and  in 
many  respects  more  baneful  poison,  by  means  of  its  destruc- 
tive moral  principles.  In  the  domain  of  poetry,  however,  it 
has  been  preponderantly  only  an  affected  dulness  and  the 
tastelessness  of  learned  conceits,  not  morally  destructive  doc- 
trine and  heathen  wisdom,  which  has  proceeded  from  it. 

Nothing  of  special  eminence  has  been  produced  by  the 
Evangelical  Church,  either  in  the  dramatic  or  the  epic  glorifi- 
cation of  the  symbol  of  redemption.  Milton's  great  Biblical 
epics  of  the  history  of  redemption  touch  only  incidentally  upon 
the  domain  of  the  history  of  the  Lord's  passion  ;  even  in  the 
"  Paradise  Regained "  it  is  not  the  redemptive  sufferings  of 
the  Lord  which  form  the  central  point  of  the  presentation,  but 
rather  His  temptation.  It  is  otherwise  with  Klopstock's 
"  Messiah,"  which  in  the  strict  sense  deserves  to  be  called  an 
epic-poetic  glorification  of  the  Passion.  But  only  in  single 
ones  of  its  executions  does  it  present  that  which  is  really  great 
and  beautiful:  regarded  as  a  whole,  it  appears  hardly  of  equally 
harmonious  beauty  and  perfection  as  many  of  the  better  odes 
of  the  poet,  e.£:,  that  to  the  Redeemer. — The  true  field  of 

»  Hase. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  32 1 

Evangelical  Christendom,  so  far  as  it  undertakes  in  singing 
to  proclaim  the  praise  of  the  crucified  Saviour,  lies  in  the 
province  of  spiritual  lyrics.  The  German  Lutheran  Church- 
song,  and  within  this  most  specially  the  Passion  song,  the 
lyric-elegiac  glorification  of  the  dying  Saviour,  and  of  the 
fulness  of  consolation  and  of  life  flowing  forth  from  His 
wounds,  indicates  the  culminating  point  of  the  development 
hitherto  attained  by  the  Christian  Church  at  all  in  the  domain 
of  hymnology.  In  it  lives  again  the  incomparable  beauty 
and  power  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  new-born  of  the  Spirit  of 
revelation  shed  forth  without  measure,  and  wonderfully  in- 
vigorated and  made  young  again  by  the  bliss-giving  com- 
munion with  the  Risen  One,  livingly  present  in  the  midst  of 
His  suffering  Church.  Though  the  Itahan,  the  Spanish,  the 
Latin  lyric  poetry  of  the  cross  of  the  modern  Romish  Chris- 
tendom be  able  to  reproduce  the  highest  and  most  glorious 
efforts  of  the  poetry  of  the  ancient  Church  and  the  Middle 
Ages  on  our  theme  ;  though  in  the  odes  of  a  John  of  the 
Cross  and  a  Theresa  the  ardent  devotional  glow  of  a  Francis 
or  a  Jacoponus  be  worthily  revived  ;  though  the  elegant  and 
yet  heartily  tender  and  heavenward-soaring  strains  of  a  Balde 
may  perhaps  rise  to  the  height  of  the  poetic  effusions  of  a 
Prudentius  or  of  a  Venantius  Fortunatus,  yet  what  has  been 
sung  in  praise  of  a  crucified  Saviour's  love,  and  of  the  evan- 
gelical solace  brought  by  it  in  suffering  and  in  death,  by 
Valentine  Herberger,  Joh.  Heermann,  and  Paul  Gerhardt,  by 
Justus  Gesenius,  Joh.  Scheffler  (Angelus  Silesius),^  Gottfried 
Arnold,  Wolfgang  Dessler,  Benjamin  Schmolck,  Zinzendorf, 
and  others,  far  surpasses  all  the  efforts  of  the  great  singers  of 
the  Middle  Ages  and  of  the  Early  Chjarch.     It  ascends  to  the 

'  We  believe  ourselves  justified  in  placing  this  profound  and  loving  singer  too 
in  this  connection,  spite  of  his  secession  to  the  Romish  Church  as  early  as  1653. 
For  as  a  German  evangelical  composer  of  hymns  he  preserves  unimpaired,  with 
all  the  severity  of  his  polemics  as  a  convert,  and  notwithstanding  the  close  relation 
in  which  he  stands  to  the  Quietistic  mysticism  of  Molinos,  Madame  de  Guyoii, 
etc.,  the  position  of  an  adherent  of  the  Silesian  Lutheran  school  of  poetry.  [A 
graceful  translation  of  one  of  SchefHer's  Hymns  of  the  Cross  appears  in  the  Family 
Treasury,  Feb.  1877.] 

21 


32  2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

height  of  the  most  glorious  products  of  the  psalm-poetry  of 
the  Old  Covenant ;  it  lays  claim  to  a  significance  absolutely 
oecumenical,  and  one  transcending  and  soaring  above  all  the 
limits  of  mere  Protestantism.     It  has  already  proved  itself,  by 
its  passing  over  into  the  language  and  melodies  of  so  many  a 
non-German  nation,  in  so  victorious  a  manner,  to  be  a  living 
treasure   of   Christian    solace,  surpassing   in    point   of  inner 
wealth  anything  of  the  kind  in  other  languages  and  litera- 
tures, that  in  reality   only   the  religious  lyric  poetry  of  the 
Old  Covenant  offers  fitting  points  of  comparison  for  it.     It 
is  worthy  of  notice  that,  of  all  kinds  of  Protestant  spiritual 
hymn  composition,  that  whose  crown  and  centre  is  formed  by 
the  cross  and  the  Christian  consolation  flowing  forth  there- 
from, has  hitherto  shown  itself  the  one  most  richly  endowed 
with  vitality,  most  abundantly  furnished  with  an  imperishable 
productive   power.      The   objectively   confessing,  fresh,  and 
jubilant   song   of    a    faith    exulting   in    victory,   which    cha- 
racterises the  epoch  of  the  Reformation,  appears  already  to 
have  ceased  to  be  heard  with  the  very  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century ;  to  the  ardent  songs  of  sanctification  of  the 
pietistic  epoch,  neither  the  preceding  nor  the  following  age 
has  been  able  to  present  any  equal  of  its  kind.     But  tender 
passion  hymns,  breathing  forth  faith  and  love,  consolatory 
confessions  to  the  Crucified    as   the  solid  ground  of  all  our 
consciousness  of  redemption,  and  the  alone  true  solace  under 
all  suffering,  have  been — from  the  earliest  commencement  of 
German   evangelical  psalmody  among  the    Hussites    in   the 
fifteenth  century — composed  and  ever  again  composed,  sub- 
stantially without  any  other  break  than  the  short  one  of  the 
vulgar-rationalistic  epoch  (1770 — 1820).     The  full  and  pure 
classicalness  of  diction  of  the  singers  of  "  O  Lamm  Gottes 
unschuldig,"  "O  HauptvoU  Blut  und  Wunden,"^  "Ein  Lamm- 
lein  geht,"  etc.,  "  Herzliebster  Jesu,"  "  Wenn  meine  Siind'  mich 
kranken,"  and  similar  hymns,  has   certainly  never  returned 
after  that  gloomy  period  of  decadence  and  apostasy;   as  it 

'  [An  English  translation,    beginning,   "  O^sacred  Head   once    wounded,"  is 
familiarly  known.] 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  323 

had  indeed  even  before  given  place  to  poetry  of  another  kind 
and  tendency.  But  this  later  pietistic  Moravian  and  mildly 
supranaturalistic  poetic  composition,  which  preceded  tlie 
rationalistic  or  revolutionary  age,  of  the  school  of  Schmolck, 
Gotter,  J.  Andr.  Rothe,  Gellert,  Hiller,  has  been  in  all 
essential  features  again  equalled,  if  not  on  every  point,  yet 
certainly  in  the  domain  now  specially  occupying  us,  by  the 
spiritual  singers  of  the  nineteenth  century,  such  as  Knapp, 
Spitta,  Sturm,  Gerok,  etc.  In  opposition  to  any  possible 
doubts  as  to  the  accuracy  of  this  assertion,  it  suffices  to 
remind  of  the  glorious  strophes  of  an  Albert  Knapp : 

Eines  wiinsch  ich  mir  vor  allem  andern,  One  thing  I  long  for  more  than  all  beside, 

Eine  Speise  friih  und  spat  ;  Morning,  night,  'tis  food  for  me  ; 

Seliglasst's  im  Thranenthalsichwandern  My  joy  will  e'en  in  this  sad  vale  abide, 

Wenn  diess  Eine  mit  mir  geht :  If  this  one  thing  present  be. 

Unverriickt  auf  Einen  Mann  zu  schauen,  To  look  with  constant  loving  gaze  on  Him, 

Der  mit  blut'gem  Schweiss  und  Todes-  Who  with  bloody  sweat  and  eyes  with 

grauen  trembling  dim, 

Auf  sein  Antlitz  niedersank  Prostrate  on  the  ground  did  sink 

Und  den  Kelch  des  Yaters  tran.k.  And  the  Father's  deep  cup  drink. 

Ewig  soil  er  mir  vor  Augen  stehen.  Yes,  He  shall  ever  stand  before  my  eyes ; 

Wie  er  als  ein  stilles  Lamm  Like  a  Lamb  I  see  Him  there, 

Dort  so  blutig  und  so  bleich  zu  sehen,  So  pale  and  bleeding,  as  He  slowly  dies 

Hangend  an  des  Kreuzes  Stamm  ;  On  the  cross  so  hard  and  bare. 

Wie  er  diirstend  rang  um  meine  Seele,  I  see  Him  wrestling  for  my  sinful  heart, 

Dass  sie  ihm  zu  seinem  Lohn  nicht  fehle,  That  it  of  His  reward  might  form  a  part, 

Und  dann  audi  an  mich  gedacht,  Of  me  thinking  as  He  cried, 

Als  er  rief :  es  ist  vollbracht !  '■'  It  is  finished  !"  ere  He  died. 

To  the  height  of  Heermann's  or  Gerhardt's,  or  Gesenius' 
Passion  poesy,  these  lines  may  not  perhaps  attain :  but  with 
the  best  which  was  sung  during  last  century,  e.g.,  by  a  Hiller 
or  a  Tersteegen,  they  are  unquestionably  on  a  level.  May 
the  raging  of  the  storms  of  revolution,  which  have  lately  once 
more  burst  in  upon  the  German  Protestant  Christendom, 
break  against  the  faithful  confession  of  its  singers — who, 
thank  God,  notwithstanding  a  thinning  having  taken  place 
in  their  ranks  for  a  time,  have  not  yet  again  died  out — 
without  being  able  to  deprive  the  Church  of  the  blessing, 
in  the  form  of  spiritual  blossoms  and  fruit,  which  has  pro- 
ceeded and  still  does  proceed  from  them. 


324  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

We  attach  immediately  to  this  contemplation  of  the  modern 
poetry  of  the  cross  that  of  the  MYSTIC  AND  THEOSOPHlC 
SPECULATION  upon  our  subject;  for,  apart  from  the  fact  that 
its  representatives  are  in  many  respects  at  the  same  time 
distinguished  representatives  of  the  spiritual  poetry,  there 
exists  betv/een  the  two  provinces  a  close  and  many-sided 
relationship.  Similarly  as  in  the  lyrical  poetry  or  hymns  of 
the  cross,  so  is — on  the  part  of  those  who  pursue  this  form  of 
speculation — the  objective  side  of  the  mystery  of  redemption 
by  the  Crucified  most  closely  associated  with  the  subjective. 
To  blend  as  much  as  possible  into  one  the  Christ  for  us  and 
the  Christ  in  us,  is  the  main  practical  aim  of  this  tendency ; 
just  as  the  proof,  by  means  of  natural  philosophy  or  by  the 
philosophy  of  history,  that  the  mystery  of  the  cross  is  the 
key  to  the  enigma  of  enigmas,  the  centre  of  all  natural  and 
spiritual  existence,  forms  its  great  theoretical  problem. 

In  the  Romish  Church  of  the  period  immediately  succeed- 
ing the  Reformation,  endeavours  of  the  latter  kind  still  recede 
comparatively  into  the  background.     The  mystic  contempla- 
tions on  the  mystery  of  the  passion  of  Christ  bear  a  prepon- 
derantly practical  ascetic  character,  in  which  sometimes  the 
advancem.ent  of  a  devotional  self-absorption  in  the  contem- 
plation of  the  form  of  the  suffering  Saviour,  beheld  objectively 
in  the  spirit — even  though  accompanied  with  the  employment 
of  aids  to  the  senses — is  the  predominating  aim ;  sometimes 
the  recommending  of  a  passive  resignation  of  oneself  to  the 
following  of  the  Lord's  sufferings,  -and  the  voluntary  taking 
up  of  the  cross  imposed  by  Him.     The  objective  side  of  the 
devout  contemplation  of  the  passion  is  fully  developed  with 
special  caj'e  in  the  "  Spiritual  Exercises  "  of  LOYOLA.   Almost 
two  entire  weeks  out  of  the  four  weeks'  course  of  meditation 
— the  third  and  greater  part  of  the  fourth  week — are  in  them 
seen  to  be  devoted  to  the  Sufferings  of  Christ ;  whilst  only 
one  week  is  appointed  for  meditation  upon  Creation,  the  Fall, 
and  Sin  with  its  consequences,  and  again  only  another  week 
for  meditation   on  the  Exaltation  of  Christ,  and  His  living 
omnipresence  in  the  Church.     Several  religious  societies  of 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  325 

later  origin — e.g.,  the  congregation  of  the  Passionists,  founded 
by  Paul  of  the  Cross  1725,  which  prescribes  to  its  novices  a 
ten  days'  meditation  upon  the  history  of  the  Passion  before 
receiving  the  vow  of  their  profession — further  cultivated  this 
method  of  devout  contemplative  self-surrender   in  an  inde- 
pendent manner ;  ^  while  the  congregations  belonging  to  the 
later    development    of  the    order  of  Jesuits   notably  devote 
themselves,  in  a  systematically  arranged  meditation,  to  the 
adoration  of  the  "  most  holy  sacrament  of  the  altar,"  or  of 
the  sacred   heart  of  Jesus. — The   subjectively  spiritualising 
operation  of  the  contemplation  of  the  Passion,  the  suffering 
with  Christ  and  for  Christ,  comes  into  play  with  special  force 
in  the  mystic  authors  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies.     Thus  with  St.  Theresa,  who  is   never  wearied   of 
exhorting  her  nuns  to  the  believing  embracing  of  the  cross, 
to  a  willing  entering  upon  the  path  of  the  cross  as  the  best 
of  all  paths,  to  the  overcoming  of  all  timid  shrinking  from 
the  bearing  of  the  cross,  and  who  depicts  with  sacred  ecstasy 
the  "  bitter-sweet  suffering  "  of  being  crucified  to  this  world 
after  the  example  of  Paul  (Gal.  vi.  14) — in  which  the  soul  "  is 
suspended  and  suffers,  as  it  were   stretched    out    crosswise 
between  heaven  and  earth,  without  help  coming  to  it  from 
any  side  whatever."     All  this,  not  without  also  from  time  to 
time  recalling  to  mind  the  virtues  of  the  sign  of  the  cross 
made  with  the  hand  in  the  religious  services  or  in  daily  life, 
and  discussions  raised  upon  the  question,  ^.^.,  whether  this 
or  the  holy  water  is  the  more  efficacious  for  the  driving  away 
of  evil  spirits."     A  like  encomiast  and  lover  of  the  resigned 

1  Comp.  Fehr,  Allgem.  Geschichte  der  Mbnchsorden,  etc.,  ii.,  S.  57;  as  also 
Pius  a  Spiritu  Sancto,  The  Life  of  St.  Paul  of  the  Cross,  London,  1868. — In  the 
regulations  and  practice  of  several  societies  of  the  modern  Romish  Church  which 
are  named  after  the  cross,  the  feature  of  the  devout  contemplation  of  the  Passion 
recedes  more  into  the  background.  So  among  the  "Daughters  of  the  Sacred 
Cross"  of  Marguerite  Senaux  (1625),  the  congregation  of  the  "  Daughters  of  the 
Cross"  (1640),  the  Belgian  "  Daughters  of  the  Sacred  Cross,"  founded  by  Priest 
Habets  at  Liege  (1835),  the  "  Sisters  of  St.  Andrew,  or  of  the  Cross,"  a  founda- 
tion of  Mdlle.  Bechier,  in  the  diocese  of  Poitiers  (1806)— societies  having  almost 
exclusively  practical  aims — comp.  Fehr,  ii.,  319  f.,  322,  389. 

2  "Life  of  St.  Teresia,  written  by  herself"  (Bd.  i.  of  the  German  redaction  of 


^26  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

following  of  suffering  in  the  service  of  Jesus  is  Theresa's  dis- 
ciple John  of  the  Cross,  whose  heart  was  never  free,  save 
when  persecutions  and  afflictions  afforded  him  the  opportunity 
of  proving  the  fitness  of  his  monastic  name,  who  in  all  respects 
upheld  his  maxim,  "Either  to  suffer,  or  to  die!"  (aitt  pati 
ant  mori)  ;  who  indeed  in  the  objective  meditation  on  the 
Passion  presented  extraordinary  manifestations,  even  to  the 
calling  forth  of  stigmatic  phenomena  upon  his  body,  e.g.,  as 
is  asserted,  at  one  time  an  abscess  upon  his  knee,  with  five 
wounds  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  etc.^  To  this  cate- 
gory belongs  also  LuiS  DE  Leon,  who,  when  on  account  of 
his  outspoken  evangelical  sentiments  he  must  journey  to  the 
prison  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  obtained  as  a  favour  an 
image  of  the  Crucified,  one  of  the  holy  Virgin,  a  scourge,  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  as  well  as  the  writings  of  St.  Augustine  and 
other  spiritual  men,  and  then,  as  he  afterwards  thankfully 
acknowledged,  "  learnt  in  this  school  of  the  cross,  beneath  the 
cross  of  the  Lord,  to  form  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
Scriptures,  and  to  refresh  himself  therefrom,  as  a  traveller  by 
a  delicious  draught  from  a  spring."^  Of  those  belonging  to  a 
later  time  who  represent  this  Ouietistic-ascetic  Mysticism  of 
the  cross,  we  have,  in  addition  to  Mich.  Molinos,  Madame  de 
Guyon,  Fenelon,  etc.,  to  make  special  mention  of  Angelus 
SiLESlUS.  The  most  effective  possible  transposition  of  the 
Jesus  for  us  into  a  Jesus  in  us,  the  greatest  possible  spiritual- 
ising and  living  appropriation  of  the  blessings  of  salvation 
obtained  on  Calvary,  forms  one  of  the  principal  and  leading 
thoughts  of  the  profound  sayings  in  his  "  Cherubinischer 
Wandersmann." 

The  cross  on  Calvary  cannot  deliver  thee, 
Except  in  thine  heart  it  firmly  planted  be. 

her  works  by  Gall.  Schwab,  Sulzbach,  1831),  ch.  31,  comp.  chaps.  11,  15,  20,  22, 
27;  also  "  Way  to  Perfection,"  ch.  18,  at  the  beginning;  "  Soul's  Fortress,"  v. 
2,  vi.  I,  9,  vii.  3.     (Bd.  iii.  and  iv.  with  Schwab.) 

'  Lechner,  Leben  des  heil.  Johannes  v.  Kretize  (Regensburg,  1858),  S.  223  ff. ; 
228  ;  cp.  227  f.,  as  well  as  my  already  cited  (p.  317)  dissertation  in  the  Zcitschrift 
f.  luth.  Theologie  und  Kirche,  1866, 

■^  Wilkens,  as  before,  272,  278  f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  32/ 

No  death  more  glorious  than  that  a  life  doth  bring, 
No  life  is  nobler  than  that  from  death  doth  spring. 

'Tis  true  indeed  God  wills  thee  salvation  to  receive  : 
If  thou  believ'st  He  will  without  thy  will,  thou  dost 
too  much  believe,  etc. 

The  endeavour  after  a  theoretical  fathoming  and  elucidation 
(by  means  of  natural  philosophy  and  the  philosophy  of  history) 
of  the  mysteries  of  the  cross,  as  the  centre  of  revelation  and  key 
to  all  earthly  and  heavenly  wisdom,  preponderates  among  the 
Mystics  of  Protestant  Christendom.  We  may  associate  with 
these  some  of  those  remarkable  enthusiasts  of  the  Reformation 
age,  with  whom  indeed  no  formal  attachment  of  themselves  to 
the  Lutheran  or  Reformed  Christendom  took  place,  but  who 
were  nevertheless  inwardly  nearer  thereto  than  to  the  Church 
of  Rome  and  its  doctrines. — Agrippa,  of  Nettesheim  (f  1535), 
the  author  of  the  "Vanity  of  the  Sciences,"  the  "Hidden 
Philosophy,"  and  other  books  of  sententious,  yet  confused, 
cabalistic  mystic  wisdom,  is  greatly  occupied  with  the  sign 
of  the  cross  as  to  its  deeper  import.  He  calls  it,  as  it  presents 
itself  in  its  regular  fundamental  form,  as  equal-armed  Greek 
cross — consisting  of  four  squares  placed  around  a 
fifth,  which  is  situated  in  the  middle,  (Fig.  117) — the 
"  solid  fortress  of  all  strength,"  and  ascribes  to  it 
secret  miraculous  virtues.^    With  him  many  points 


Fig.  117.  of  contact  are  presented^  as  in  general,  so  specially 
in  these  thoughts  on  the  cross,  by  Sebastian  Franck,  a  native 
of  Donauworth  (f  1543) ;  only  that  in  his  writings  the  ethical 
side  of  the  philosophy  of  the  cross  comes  out  more  strongly, 
in  a  manner  not  seldom  according  with  Luther's,  although  his 
pantheistically  inclined  spiritualism  and  subjectivism  early 
felt  itself  repelled  by  Luther's  objectively  ecclesiastical  bear- 
ing ;  and  Luther,  on  the  other  hand,  on  one  occasion  warned 
against  the  fanaticism  of  Franck,  as  that  of  "  the  devil's  own 
and  dearest  blasphemer."  1\\  essential  harmony  with  Luther 
does  Franck  say,  "  The  cross  alone  is  the  theology  of  Chris- 

'  De  Occulta  Pkilos.,  lib.  ii.  Comp.  Carriere,  Die  Weltanschauung  der  Re/or- 
mationszeit,  S.  109. 


328  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

tians,  and  death  the  only  way  to  life."'  ^  He  speaks  of  the 
distinction  between  the  theology  which  will  see  "  God's  back 
parts"  (Exod.  xxxiii.  23),  and  that  which  Avill  behold  Him 
face  to  face  ;  precisely  as  Luther  of  the  relation  of  the  tJieo- 
logia  criicis  to  the  theologia  glorice.  Only  the  way  of  the  cross 
and  of  affliction  leads,  according  to  him,  to  the  depths  of  the 
knowledge  of  God.  The  "  Thaw  or  Cross  "  he  calls  "  the  true 
key  of  David,  which  alone  can  open  the  closed  book  of  Scrip- 
ture." "  Only  those  who  bear  the  sign  of  this  cross  and 
affliction  upon  their  brow  (Ezek.  ix.  4),  i.e.,  who  in  their  life 
publicly  bear  and  testify  to  the  crucified  Christ,  open  this 
book,"  etc.^  His  frequent  and  formal  references  to  the  Thau 
of  Ezekiel  are  explained  from  the  adoption  of  some  cabalistic 
elements  into  his  speculation,  in  which,  moreover,  his  con- 
temporaries of  kindred  spirit,  Agrippa  and  PARACELSUS 
(t  1 541),  went  much  farther  than  he.  The  former  especially 
by  elaborate,  but  certainly  extremely  inflated  and  misty  con- 
templations on  the  wonder-tree,  or  tree  of  life,  of  the  ten 
sephirs;  the  latter  by  the  mixing  up  of  yet  more  numerous 
cabalistic  conceptions  and  expressions  in  his  quixotic  alche- 
mistic  reveries.^ 

Upon  the  teaching  of  these  fanatical  spirits  of  the  Refor- 
mation Age,  as  well  as  the  more  spiritualistic  Valentine  Weigel 
(t  1558),  who  more  nearly  approximated  to  the  doctrinal 
views  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  is  built  up  the  Theosophy  of 
Jak.  Bohme,  the  profound  shoemaker  of  Gorlitz  (f  1624),  in 
whose  conceptions — the  fruit  of  a  clairvoyant  genius,  but  often 

'  "  Allein  das  Kreuz  ist  der  Christen  Theologey,  und  der  Tod  allein  der  AVeg 
zum  Leben." 

^  See  the  treatise  which  appeared  in  1539,  "The  closed  book,  sealed  with  seven 
seals,  which  no  man  can  rightly  open  but  those  to  whom  the  Lamb  belongs,  and 
who,  marked  with  the  Thaw,  belong  to  the  Lamb,"  as  well  as  the  excerpts  from 
the  same  given  by  E.  A.  Hase,  Sebastian  Franck  von  Word,  der  Schivdrmgeist 
(Leipzig,  1869),  S.  151  ff.  Comp.  also  the  selections  there  made,  S.  230 — 239, 
from  several  other  writings  of  Franck,  as  "Die  Guldin  Arch"  [the  golden  ark], 
Paradoxes,  etc.,  under  the  heading,  "The  way  of  the  holy  cross,  of  hope,  and  the 
love  of  God." 

^  Comp.  Rocholl,  Beitrdge  zu  ehicr  GescJiichte  deiitscher  Theosophie,  S.  47  ff. 
Carriere,  as  before,  S.  no  ff.  Harless,  J.  Bohme  tind  die  Alchymisten,  S.  38  ff., 
46fr.,  57f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  329 

confused  and  fantastic  in  their  nature — a  pretty  important  part 
is  assigned,  inter  alia,  to  the  cross.  In  his  earHest  writings,  e.g., 
the  "  Aurora,"  the  staurosophic  element  remains  as  yet  more 
in  the  background  ;  whilst  in  the  later  ones,  particularly  the 
"  Three  Principles  of  the  Divine  Essence,"  the  "  Threefold  Life 
of  Man,"  the  "  Signatura  rerum,"  "  Psychologia  vera,"  "  Election 
of  Grace,"  and  the  "  Mysterium  magnum,"  he  returns  ever 
afresh  to  his  favourite  thought  of  the  v^  form  in  the  fourth 
form  of  nature,  or  of  the  ^ -birth  out  of  fire,  water,  acerbity, 
etc.  Thus  it  is  said  among  other  things  in  the  "  Three  Prin- 
ciples," on  the  occasion  of  explaining  the  essence  of  the  first 
and  second  Principles,  or  God  and  the  Divine  nature,  "  And 
3'et  there  is  no  essence  separable  from  the  others,  but  all 
things  the  one  in  the  other  entirely  one  essence ;  and  every 
form  or  birth  takes  its  own  form,  power,  operation,  rising, 
from  all  the  forms.  And  the  whole  birth  taken  altogether 
retains  now  especially  four  sorts  of  form  in  its  birth,  as  the 
arising,  descending,  and  then  through  the  revolving  wheel  in 
the  acerb  essentia,  the  transverse  going  out  on  both  sides, 
like  a  »^,  or,  as  I  might  say,  they  proceeded  from  the  point, 
towards  the  east  and  west,  the  north  and  the  south.  For 
from  the  stirring,  moving,  and  arising  of  the  acerbity  in  the 
lightning-flash  is  formed  a  »-^  -birth ;  for  the  fire  ascends 
upwards,  and  the  water  goes  downwards,  and  the  essentia  of 
the  asperity  crosswise."  ^  In  a  somewhat  different  manner 
is  the  cross  explained  in  the  P sychologia  vera  as  the  mystic 
ground  and  centre  of  all  unseen  things.  The  cross  %^^  as 
shown  in  the  table  illustrative  of  that  which  is  here  explained, 
passing  through  the  two  concentric  circles,  which  denote  the 
highest  principles  of  the  Divine  nature,  is  said  to  represent 
"  the  persons  of  the  Godhead,  as  they  are  divided  in  the  eternal 
unique  descent."  The  eye,  drawn  through  one  of  the  lines 
or  angles  of  this  cross,  denotes  "each  one  a  world  ;  that  to 
the  left  the  great  dark  world,  that  to  the  right  the  world  of 

'  J.  Bohme's  sammtl.  Werke,  von  K.  W.   Schiebler,    Bd.  iii.,  S.  17;    comp. 
S.  342  f. 


330  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

light"  The  heart  in  the  angle  of  the  cross  "denotes  the 
foundation  or  centre  of  the  Godhead."  ^  The  reference  of 
these  profound  but  obscure  speculations  to  cabalistic  sources 
receives  special  light  from  a  picture,  contained  in  the  Magnum 
mysteriiim,  of  the  triple  cross,  with  the  three  crowns  hanging 
over  it,  unquestionably  a  free  imitation  or  speculative  con- 
tinued development  of  the  mysterious  Tree  of  Life  of  the 
ten  Sephiroth,  which,  in  the  explanation  appended  thereto, 
is  explained  as  ''  a  revelation  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  the  same 
to  be  recognised  in  the  figure  and  likeness  of  all  visible 
things."  ^  Greatly,  however,  as  this  quixotic  staurosophy, 
founded  on  the  ideas  of  natural  philosophy,  seems  to  have 
formed  one  of  the  leading  subjects  for  speculation  with  him, 
especially  in  the  later  epochs  of  his  development,  Bohme  is 
nevertheless  also  well  acquainted  with  the  ethico-mystical 
side  of  the  doctrine  of  the  cross,  the  Cross-theology  in  the 
sense  of  an  Angela  of  Foligno,  an  Eckart,  a  Suso,  and  others, 
as  is  shown.  La.,  by  his  utterances  upon  the  suprasensuous 
life,  in  his  "Way  to  Christ."  "The  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  with  the  mockery  of  the  world  which  hates  thee,  that 
thou  must  learn  to  love  and  to  accept  for  the  daily  exercise  of 
thy  penitence ;  so  wilt  thou  ever  have  cause  to  hate  thyself 
with  the  creature,  and  to  seek  that  everlasting  rest  in  which 
thy  will  can  repose."  * 

By  Bohme's  Philosophy  of  the  Cross,  to  which  John  Arndt, 
the  author  of  the  WaJires  Christent/nun,  as  well  as  Joach. 
Betkius,  the  censorially  strict  separatist  and  enthusiast  (f  1663), 
at  least  on  their  ethico-ascetic  side,  pretty  nearly  approached,* 
were  the  later  mystics  and  theosophs  of  both  confessions,  the 
Lutheran  and  the  Reformed,  and  even  several  of  the  Roman- 

'  Ibid,  vi.,  S.  25  f.     Comp.  also  Bd.  vi.,  28,  269  ff.,  463,  486  f. 

'  My  St.  Magn.,  cap.  30. 

^  Bd.  i.,  S.  134  f.  Comp.  also  Myst.  magn.,  c.  48.  (v.,  384  ff.)  The  sacrifice 
of  Isaac  as  a  type  of  the  true  spiritual  self-crucifixion  of  man. 

*  Joh.  Arndt,  "  Lehr  und  Trostbiichlein  vom  Glauben  und  heiligen  Leben," 
1620.  (See  also  above,  p.  307.)  Joachim  Betkius,  Mysteiium  Cruets,  oder  Erin- 
nerung  derer  Geheimnissai  und Krafft  des  Creutzes  Christi,  etc.,  Berl.  i637-  Frankf. 
1646.  Also  by  the  same,  Gottliche  Leidensgcmeinschaft  zuah}-er  Christen  mit  ihrem 
Haupte.     Amsterdam,  1660. 


IN   THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  33 1 

Catholic  communion  influenced.  In  the  fantastic  speculations 
in  natural  philosophy  among  the  later  ROSICRUCIANS — i.e., 
not  that  alchemistic-sophistic  secret  compact  of  J.  B.  Andrea 
(t  1614),  which  was  merely  invested  with  an  air  of  mystery, 
and  which  is  said  to  have  existed  contemporaneously 
with  Bohme,  but  those  of  the  alchemistic  enthusiasts  of  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  to  the  number  of  which 
Duke  Ernest  Augustus  of  Saxe  Weimar  belonged,  and  for  a 
time  also  John  Conrad  Dippel  and  others,  the  cross  as  the 
secret  fundamental  power  of  creation  plays  an  important  part. 
By  means  of  an  absurdly  whimsical  etymology,  the  name 
Rosenkreuz,  rosea  cnix,  is  derived  from  ros,  dew,  and  krenz, 
crosS;  and  on  this  account  a  high  degree  of  significance  and 
activity  for  the  chemical  operation  is  ascribed  to  the  actual 
dew  of  heaven,  and  so  forth.^ — Upon  the  basis  of  such  and 
kindred  speculations  also  rests  the  work,  long  highly  prized 
and  zealously  read  in  mystic-theosophic  circles,  "  the  Mystery 
of  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Members."^  This  book, 
w^hich  appeared  anonymously  in  the  original  French  edition 
of  1732,  is  the  work  of  the  Mystic  Douze-Tems,  a  country- 
man and  spiritual  kinsman  of  Madame  de  Guyon,  la  Combe, 
Poiret,  and  other  representatives  of  the  then  flourishing  Mystic 
Quietistic  school.  With  remarkable  alchemistic  speculations 
on  the  cross — as  the  supposed  result  of  a  combination  of  the 
triangle  of  fire  A ,  which  (as  is  asserted)  denotes  the  Trinity, 
with  the  triangle  of  water    V,  which  is  said  to  denote  grace, 


Fig.  118.  Fig.  119.  Fig.  120. 

goodness,  kindness,  and,  combined  with  the  former,  results  in 

'  Harless,  as  before,  S.  115.  (On  the  authority  of  the  work  which  appeared  in 
1742,  "Theosophic  heart-devotions,  addressed  to  the  one  supreme  Jehovah,"  by 
Ernst  August,  Herzog  zu  S. -Weimar. ) 

*  Mystere  de  la  Croix  (affligeante  et  consolante,  mortifiante  et  vivifiante,  humi- 
liante  et  triomphante)  de  Jesus-Christ  et  ses  membres.  Ecrit  au  milieu  de  la  Croix 
dedans  et  dehors  par  un  Disciple  de  la  Croix  de  Jesus.  Acheve  le  12  d'Aout, 
1732.  Nouvelle  Edit.  (xxiv.  390  pp.),  a  Lausanne,  1 791. — Appeared  also  in 
German,  Leipzig,  1782. 


332  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Figures  ii8,  119,  and  finally  120, — this  author  combines  pro- 
found thoughts  on  the  wisdom  and  folly  of  the  cross  of  Jesus, 
on  the  true  resignation  in  the  bearing  of  inner  and  outward 
afflictions,  trials,  and  assaults.  "  We  err,"  he  writes  z;iUr  alia 
on  this  subject,  "  when  we  regard  the  adversities  and  afflictions 
to  which  the  world  exposes  us  as  the  true  cross  of  Christ. 
They  are  crosses,  but  they  are  not  the  true  cross.  The  true 
cross  consists  in  inward  penitence,  in  the  constant  mortifi- 
cation of  our  own  flesh,  of  our  own  will  and  the  fleshly  love 
of  self  and  of  the  creature,  that  we  may  live  only  in  the 
spirit ;  in  the  following  of  the  meekness  and  the  lowliness 
of  heart  of  Jesus,  which  deeply  humbles  our  natural  pride  and 
anger ;  in  bidding  a  final  farewell  to  our  own  I,  with  all  which 
belongs  not  to  God,  and  which  draws  us  from  Him,  even  as 
Jesus  once  did  this."  To  such  a  perfect  delivering  up.  of  self 
to  God  only  he  attains  who  utterly  renounces  his  own  doing 
and  working,  and  allows  the  Lord  alone  to  work  all  things 
upon  us  and  in  us.  "  We  must  cease  to  act,  in  order  to  be 
only  receptive;  die,  in  order  to  attain  to  the  true  life;  wither 
and  decay,  in  order  to  become  afresh  verdant  in  God.  It  is 
the  Lord  who  will  fight  for  thee  ;  thou  hast  only  to  rest  and 
be  still.  He  who  in  this  way  passes  with  resignation  through 
the  painful  hell  of  the  inner  cross,  is  a  true  member  of  the 
body  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  head  and  commander  of  the  great 
host  of  cross-bearers.  In  short,  our  whole  life  must  be  a  life 
which  for  us  constantly  dies,  and  a  death  which  for  Jesus 
constantly  lives."  ^  The  peculiar  beauty  and  persuasive  power 
of  this  and  similar  sections  suffers  considerable  diminution 
and  interruption  from  the  reveries  of  natural  philosophy  before 
alluded  to,  on  the  composition  of  the  cross  out  of  the  triangles 
of  fire  and  of  water,  as  well  as  from  alchemistic  speculations 
of  a  character  still  much  more  odd,  as  to  "  the  miracles  of 
the  cross  in  outward  nature;"^  and  partly  also  from  fana- 
tically unevangelical  doctrines,  such  as  that  of  purgatory  as 
the  epitome  of  the  "  crosses  after  this  life,"  of  the  restoration 

'  Pp.  100,  1 12,  of  the  French  edition. 
""  L.C.,  p.  259  sqq. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  333 

of  all  things,  and  of  the  rejectable  character  of  the  dogma  of 
justification  through  faith  alone  as  an  abuse  of  the  cross  of 
Christ  in  the  interests  of  a  false  liberty,  and  of  an  indolent 
fleshly  indulgence/ 

Spite  of  these  instances  of  onesidedness  and  caprice,  the 
ideas  of  this  French  theosoph  have  met  with  a  lively  approval 
on  the  part  of  later  representatives  of  the  same  intellectual 
tendency,  and  down  to  the  most  recent  times  have  called  forth 
manifold  declarations  of  a  like  kind.     Their  after-operation 
is  manifest  in  not  a  few  of  the  characteristic  conceptions  of 
the  French  theosoph  St.  Martin,  as  well  as  of  the  Strass- 
burg  mystic  F.  R.  Saltzmann  (f  1820),  the  author  of  the  trac- 
tates still  held  in  high  estimation  in  many  theosophic-ascetic 
circles,  entitled  "  Glances  into    the    Mystery  of  the  Decree 
of  God,"  "  Religion  of  the  Bible,"  "  Spirit  and  Truth,  or  the 
Religion  of  the  Initiated,"  etc.,^  a  man  who  received  his  im- 
pulse from  St.  Martin.     Even  in  the  writings  of  Franz  VON 
Baader,  this  kind  of  staurosophic  speculation  still  continues 
to  flourish.     A  certain  endeavour  to  rid  it  of  its  wildest  and 
most  uncritical  alchemistic  outgrowths  cannot  fail  to  be  ob^ 
served  in  connection  with  his  teaching ;  yet  in  point  of  fact 
he  does  not  succeed  in  freeing  himself  from  the  well-known 
vagaries  of  the  theosophy  of  a  Paracelsus,  a   Bohme,  or  a 
Douze-Tems.      Like  a  genuine  fire-philosopher  {PhilosopJiiis 
per  ignem),  as  he  loves  to  designate  himself,  he  explains  the 
cross  as  the  symbol  of  fire,  inasmuch  as  this  is  the  centre  of 
the  ternary  of  water,  air,  and  earth.     The  cross  is  for  him 
"  centre  and  ternary,  root  and  perfection  of  all  things."^     In 
the  concluding  observation  to  his  treatise  on  lightning  as  the 
father   of  light,    it   is  said,   "  Per  ignem  signifies,  as  is  well 
known,  also /^r  crucevi ;  because  the  cross  everywhere  implies 
the  tetrade  (Father — decussation),  as  is  already  implied  by 

'  Ch.  ix.  :  De  I'abus  des  croix,  et  surtout  de  celle  de  J6sus  (p.  157  sqq.) 
Comp.  ch.  xi.  :  Des  Croix  apres  la  mort ;  and  Ch.  xv.  :  De  la  Ci'oix  victorieuse 
et  triomphante  de  Jesus-Christ  (pp.  310 — 340). 

-  See,  e.g.,  the  ''  Blicke  in  das  Geheimniss,"  etc.  (Strassburg,  iSio),  S.  168  f. ; 
"Relig.  der  Bib."  (Strassb.,  181 1),  S.  279  ff. 

^  Werke,  herausg.  v,  Fr.  Hoffmann,  etc.,  Bd.  xii.,  S.  343;  cp.  S.  191. 


3  34  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

the  numeral  hieroglyph  (Figs.  121  or  122)."  In  the  lectures  on 
the  Philosophy  of  Religion  he  observes,  manifestly  pursuing 
J.   Bohme's  line    of  thought  (see  above),   "  In   the  cross  of 

4     ^     t     4 

Fig.  121.  Fig.  122.  Fig.  123.  Fig.  124. 

nature,  consisting  of  four  forms,  the  Word  is  born.  This 
cross,  Fig.  123,  or  also  Fig.  124,  is  the  proceeding  forth  of 
the  lightning  from  above,  the  downward  precipitation  of  the 
startled  asperity,  and  the  dividing  of  the  sting  or  going  out 
to  the  two  sides."  ^  Yet  more  fully  does  he  develop  this  idea 
in  a  passage  of  his  Philosophy  of  Society,  in  which  he  is 
treating  of  the  just  "  insight  into  the  connection  and  insepa- 
rableness  of  the  law  of  reaction  with  that  of  subordination," 
and  showing  how  "  only  in  the  midst  of  them,  as  the  four 
quarters  of  the  world  or  cardinal  points,  everything  which  is 
may  be  comprehended  as  existing."  "  This  double  law,"  so 
he  teaches  here,  "  is  indicated  by  the  figure  of  the 
quarternary    (Fig.   125),  or,  what  denotes  the  same 

thing,  the  cross  — | —  ;  with  which  cross  the  ancients 
Fig.  125.  were  wont  always  to  imply  the  middle  or  centre. 
This  cross  accordingly  has  a  deeper  significance  than  most 
theologians  are  able  to  assign  to  it  from  the  merely  historical 
standpoint ;  even  as  this  cross  in  the  figure  4  reminds  of  the 
Pythagorean  tetrade,  and  presents  the  key  to  the  right  under- 
standing of  all  nature.  For  in  this  cross,  or  quarternary,  the 
rising  or  beginning  falls  in  d,  the  setting  in  e ;  the  former 
gives,  the  latter  receives ;  while  a  and  b,  the  dextruvi  and  the 
sinistriun,  in  the  most  universal  significance  react,  i.e.,  repre- 
sent the  active  and  re-active  principle  as  the  expansive  and 
contractive,  in  their  co-ordination  and  even  in  their  opposition. 
Our  later  German  natural  philosophers  have  apprehended  this 
latter  law  of  co-ordination  in  an  abstract  manner  and  without 
that  of  subordination,  and  have  therefore  not  been  able  to 

'   Varies,  iiber  relig.  Philos.,  i.  21 7.     Comp.  Ueb.  den  Blitz,  etc.,  Werke,  Bd.  ii.. 
S.  46. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  335 

advance  beyond  a  polar  dualism."  ^ — No  one  can  fail  to  per- 
ceive that,  in  these  attempts  at  the  vindication  of  the  cross 
as  the  fundamental  principle  of  all  true  philosophy  of  nature, 
Baader  was  following  an  illusory  Will-o'-the-wisp  derived  from 
the  earlier  alchemistic  school  of  theosophs,  and  one  which  led 
him  into  the  byways  of  a  lamentable  obscurity,  which  was 
never  to  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the  methods  of  the 
natural  science  of  the  present  day,  and  if  it  did  not  destroy 
the  possibility,  yet  made  much  more  difficult  for  him  the  effort, 
of  attaining  to  a  profitable  turning  to  account  and  rendering 
fruitful  the  idea  of  the  cross,  even  for  those  provinces  where 
its  application  is  in  reality  perfectly  legitimate,  particularly 
that  of  the  philosophy  of  history  and  speculative  dogmatics. — 
On  the  ethical  side  of  the  idea  of  the  cross,  he  has  presented 
us  with  many  excellent  lessons ;  e.g.,  on  the  fact  that  "  the 
Christian  is  not  less  a  cross  to  the  world  than  the  world  is  to 
him  ;"  that  "the  insipidity  and  worthlessness  of  most  moral 
teachings  in  modern  times  arises  from  the  fact  that  they  take 
away  from  the  seriousness  and  pain  of  the  birth  to  the  moral 
life,  from  the  cross,  the  decussation,  i.e.,  from  the  very  main 
thing  ;  "  as  also  that  ^'  Cross  and  sadness  is  not  to  be  separated 
from  the  joy  of  love,  because  man  must  one  day  come  forth 
again  with  sadness  from  that  into  which  he  entered  with  joy;" 
and  not  less  on  the  "  cross  of  speculation,  the  pang  and  re- 
proach of  intellectual  poverty,"  etc.  etc.^ 

The  German  evangelical  theosophy  from  the  middle  of  last 
century  has  for  the  most  part  refrained  from  that  method  of 
natural-philosophic  speculation  upon  the  cross,  which  was 
pursued  by  Baader  with  special  zeal,  but  not  with  equal  profit 
as  regards  the  results,  while  on  the  other  hand  it  has  applied 
itself  with  a  diligence  so  much  the  more  productive  to  the 
ethical  treatment  of  its  subject,  and  the  treatment  of  it  in 

'  Varies,  iiber  Soc!etatsJ)hilos.,\iers.M?,g.  v.  Fr.  Hoffmann.  "WW.,  Bd.  xiv. ,S.  104. 
Comp.  also  the  treatise  cited  at  the  close  of  this  passage,  "On  the  Pythagorean 
Square  in  Nature,  or  the  Four  Quarters  of  the  Globe,"  Tiib.  1798.  (WW.,  Bd. 
iii.,  especially  S.  267,  326.) 

2  Speadat.  Dogni.,  Bd.  ix.,  lo  ff.  Comp.  Firm,  cognit.,  Bd.  ii.,  184,  302  ;  Sdtze 
aus  der  eroi.  Fhilos.,  iv.  178 ;  also  letters,  Bd.  xv.,  528,  541,  568,  etc,  etc. 


3  36  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

accordance  with  the  philosophy  of  history.     To  this  category 
belongs  a  series  of  profound  and  oracle-like  utterances  on  the 
part  of  Hamann,  the  gifted  and  witty  Magus  of  the  North, 
namely,  several  of  his  "  Crusades  of  the  Philologist,"  which 
essentially  seek   to   vindicate    as   the   only  true   and   sound 
wisdom  that  same  theology  of  the  cross  for   which  Luther 
had  already  fought.     Upon  the  banner  of  this  hasty  collection 
of  twelve  essays  {1762)  "sparkles  that  symbol  of  offence  and 
folly,  in  which  the  smallest  art-critic  with  Constantine  over- 
comes, and  carries  out  the  oracle  of  judgment  unto  victory." 
Crusades  to  the  East,  new  military-critical  expeditions  in  the 
service  of  the  Divine  Logos,  Croisades  a  la  modenie,  are  to  be 
the  means  "for  restoring  to  life  the  dead  language  of  nature."-^ 
For  "  the  tyrant  and  sophist  Usiis  can  be  disarmed  by  nothing 
but  the  aesthetic  obedience  of  the  cross,"  by  bringing  .to  light 
that  "  aesthetic  secret  of  fair  nature,  which   is  called   in   the 
shepherds'  stories  a  stone  of  the  wise,  in  dissections  shame, 
but  in  experience  the  dear  cross — a  noli  vie  tangere  for  cham- 
berlains and  for  algebraists."  - — Admirably  does  he  speak  of 
the  necessity  for  the  cross  of  suffering  in  order  to  the  spiritual 
weal  of  man.     "  The   sweets  of  life  lose  their  taste    for  the 
first  who  easily  accustoms  himself,  and  long  continues,  to  use 
bitter  and  sour  draughts.     In  the  cross,  as  our  religion  terms 
it  in  the  language  of  beautifully  suggestive  figure,  there  lies  a 
great  enjoyment  of  our  existence  and  at  the  same  time  the 
true  spring  of  our  most  hidden  powers."  ^     With  regard  also 
to  the  dogmatic  import  of  the  atoning  sacrifice  upon  Calvary 
in  relation  to  the  history  of  redemption,  we  owe  to  him  pro- 
foundly suggestive   and  forcible  utterances,  such  as  that  on 
"  the   symbolic   connection  or   affinity  between    the   earthly 
thorn-crowns  and  the  heavenly  starry  crowns,"  on  the  "  cross- 
wise effected  relation  between   the  deepest  humiliation  and 
highest  exaltation  of  two  opposed  natures,"  on  "  Calvary  as 
the  last  triumph  of  the  extraordinary  legislation  over  the  Law- 

'  Werke,  herausg.  v.  Roth,  ii.  293,  comp.  495;  iii.  355  ;  also  iv.  156. 

*  Ibid.,  vi.  31;  iii.  410  f. 

^  Letter  to  Reichardt,  vi.  257. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  3  3/ 

giver  Himself/'  on  the  world-redeeming  deed  of  that  man 
"who,  as  a  God  of  the  living  and  not  of  the  dead,  brought 
forth  an  universal  tincture  of  immortality  against  the  sting  of 
death,  after  a  victory  of  right  and  of  might  over  the  most 
universal  law  of  nature,  and  out  of  the  carcase  and  skeleton 
of  the  destroyer  and  despot  brought  food  and  sweetness  for 
the  imtrimentiini  spiritus ;  that  peace  might  be  prepared  upon 
earth,  by  the  rejection  of  an  evil  and  adulterous  progeny,  to 
the  contentment  of  the  whole  human  race,  the  restoration  of 
the  lost  son,  but  also  as  the  latest  prelude  to  the  glorious  and 
terrible  resurrection  and  the  consummation  of  the  universe  for 
glory  in  the  highest."  ^ 

In  the  case  of  Oetinger,  the  Magus  of  the  South,  con- 
templations of  this  kind  retire  more  into  the  background.  By 
virtue  of  his  relations  to  Zinzendorf  and  his  "blood-theology,"^ 
the  blood  of  Christ,  or  also  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  Lord, 
as  the  heavenly  virtues  and  means  of  grace  by  which  "  all 
things  are  to  be  brought  to  the  true  corporeality,"  and  God 
with  His  glory  to  make  His  abode  in  the  creature,  appears  fo^ 
Oetinger  of  far  greater  importance  than  the  cross,  the  historic 
means  of  accomplishment  and  outward  symbol  of  this  process 
of  spiritual-bodily  transformation.^  On  the  other  hand,  seve- 
ral adherents  of  that  profound  pneumatic-realistic  school  of 
"  Wurtemberg    Theologians,"    as    they    were    wont    to    term 

'  Flieg.  Brief  an  Niemand  den  Kundbarcn.  Bd.  vii.,  117.  Comp.  ibid.,  125, 
127. 

2  With  regard  to  this,  specially  in  its  more  rugged  and  excentric  type  (of  the 
"time  of  spasmodic  malformations")  comp.  /.a.  the  saying  handed  down  on  p. 
486  of  Spangenberg's  "  Apologetische  Zeitschrift"  (1752),  "Thus  the  crucifixion 
has  not  effected  the  work,  but  the  blood-shedding  upon  the  cross  ;  .  .  .  they  must 
not  exclude  the  blood-sheding  from  the  Passion,  but  make  it  the  principal  circum- 
stance, otherwise  they  are  in  error."  Further,  the  notorious  Wound-litany  of  the 
year  1744,  etc.  See  in  general  Plitt,  Zinzendorf  s  Theologie,  ii. ,  S.  196,  ff. ;  also 
S.  69 ff.;  as  well  as,  with  regard  to  the  occurrence  in  a  somewhat  milder  form  of 
the  same  teaching  concerning  the  blood  and  wounds  of  the  Saviour  even  in  those 
writings  belonging  to  a  period  prior  or  subsequent  to  that  of  the  sickly  misconcep- 
tions, Plitt,  i.,  291  ff.;  295 — 297;  iii.,  63,  64  f. 

^  Theology  from  the  idea  of  Life,  etc.  (German  by  Hambsrger,  Stuttgard,  1852.) 
Comp.  also  the  artt.  "  Cross,"  "  Blood  of  Christ,"  and  "  Shedding  of  the  Blood 
of  Jesus,"  in  his  Bibl,  Worterbuch,  edited  by  Hamberger. 

22 


3  38  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

themselves  after  John  Albert  Bengel,  have  admirably  ex- 
pressed themselves  with  regard  to  our  subject :  especially  on 
the  value  and  significance  of  the  cross  of  suffering  imposed  by 
Christ,  as  also  upon  the  mysteriously  attractive  and  spiritually 
transforming  power  which  proceeds  from  the  cross  of  the  Re- 
deemer as  believingly  contemplated  and  embraced.  To  those 
sayings  of  Bengel  himself  which  fall  under  this  head  there 
belongs  a  series  of  the  most  suggestive  reflections  in  his 
Gnomon  to  the  New  Testament ;  such  as  that  on  Matt.  xvi. 
2"^,  according  to  which  on  the  one  hand  the  cross  is  an  offence 
to  the  world,  but  on  the  other  hand  also  the  world-shaped 
opposite  to  the  cross  is  an  offence  to  Christ ;  or  that  on  i  Cor. 
i.  24,  "  If  we  have  overcome  the  offence  of  the  cross,  the 
whole  mystery  of  Christ  is  for  us  clear  and  plain."  In  like 
manner  other  beautiful  presentations  of  the  fruit  and  value  of 
sufferings  for  the  disciples  of  Christ,  such  as  "The  good  can- 
not thus  be  made  hereditary ;  it  must  pass  through  the  cross 
and  be  proved,"  etc.^  Glorious  is  that  which  Magn.  Friedr. 
ROOS  brings  out  in  his  "  Brief  Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians"  (on  ch.  v.  24)  concerning  the  bliss-giving  effect 
of  the  spiritual  attractive  power  of  the  crucified  Saviour,  con- 
cerning that  mysterious  "communion  through  faith  with  Jesus 
in  His  cross,  which  is  experienced,  but  cannot  be  explained." 
"  For,"  so  he  further  expounds,  "  the  view  of  the  crucified 
Saviour,  beheld  in  the  light  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  makes  upon 
the  soul  such  an  impression  that  it  has  henceforth  an  antipathy 
or  hostility,  but  also  a  subjugating  power,  against  the  flesh 
and  its  desires ;  because  this  impression  remains,  and  the  view 
of  the  crucified  Saviour  is  very  often  repeated.  Here  is  the 
fountain  of  true  sanctification,  here  the  foundation  of  true 
liberty."-  Where  too  he  is  treating  of  the  "inner  making 
one's  own,  or  appropriation,  of  the  cross,"  and  the  deliverance 
from  the  curse  of  the  law  thereby  to  be  wrought,  and  not  less 
where  he  is  explaining  Paul's  "  being  crucified  unto  the  world, 

'  Cited  in  Osk.  Wachter,  Joh.  Albrccht  Bengel,    Stutlg.  1865,  S.  45.      Comp. 
also  S.  323,  544  f. 

-  Kit rze  Attslegting,  tic.     (Tubing.  1784),  S.  124  f. 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  339 

and  the  world  unto  him/'  does  he  testify  of  deeply-felt, 
livingly-experienced  truths  ;  as  also  in  so  many  contempla- 
tions and  prayers  of  his  "  School  of  the  Cross "  already, 
mentioned  before.^  Not  far  removed  from  this  circle  of 
thought  are  also  Lavater  and  JUNG  Stilling,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  a  peculiarly  profound  spiritual  medicinal  mode 
of  teaching  in  relation  to  the  effect  of  the  redeeming  death 
of  Christ  (as  consisting  in  a  mysterious  inoculation  of  reme- 
dial powers  of  life  into  the  organism  of  mankind,  grievously 
diseased  and  as  it  were  suppurating). '  So  also  Menken, 
the  thoughtful  and  suggestive  expositor  of  that  section  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  which  treats  of  the  perfect  atoning 
sacrifice  of  the  kingly  High  Priest,  Christ  (viii. — x.  12),  as  well 
as  the  typical  narrative  of  the  brazen  serpent  lifted  up  by 
Moses  (Num.  xxi.  ;  Joh.  iii.  14),  in  which  latter  he  seeks  to 
point  out  an  image  of  Satan,  inasmuch  as  he  was  vanquished 
by  the  Lord  upon  the  cross,  thus  a  prophetic  emblem  of  the 
idea  of  the  atonement  (which,  according  to  his  peculiar  con- 
ception of  it,  is  the  rendering  unsinful  of  the  human  nature 
by  the  victorious  combating  and  overcoming  of  sinful  flesh,  in 
the  person  of  Jesus  upon  the  cross).  Not  less  so  R.  Stier, 
an  almost  equally  zealous  opponent  of  the  Church's  doctrine 
of  satisfaction  as  was  Menken,  yet  differing  from  the  latter  in 
this  respect,  that  he  does  not  conceive  of  the  Crucified  as  one- 
sidedly  and  alone  a  bearer  of  the  Divine  love,  but  as  also  at 
the  same  time  a  revealer  of  the  Divine  wrath.  His  death  on 
the  cross  thus  a  sealing  of  this  wrath,  a  terrifying  form  of 
threat  and  example  of  punishment.^  Finally,  J.  Fr.  V. 
Meyer,  who  adhered  more  closely  than  the  writers  before 
mentioned  to  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  doctrine  of  satis- 
faction handed  down  in  the  Church,  but  in  connection  there- 

'  As  before,  S.  30,  133  f. —  '■Creiizschiile  oder  Aiiweisung  zu  einem  Christl.  Ver- 
halten  unter  dcni  Leiden,  with  an  appendix  of  prayers  for  special  occasions,  (7th 
edn.,  Stuttgard,  1875.) 

-  For  tliem  both  comp.  Ritschl,  Lehre  von  der  Rechtfertigung,  i.  553^- 
^  Of  Menken,    see  especially  Ueber  die  eherne  Schlange,  etc.  (partic.  S.  385  ff. 
of  the  edn.  of  1858.)     Of  Stier,   Andeutungen  fiir  gldubiges  Schriftverstiindniss, 
1st  Samml.  (1824),  S.  375,2nd  Samml.  (1828),  S.  24  ff.— Comp.  Ritschl,  as  before, 
S.  557  ff,  567  ff. 


340  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

with  laid  a  main  stress  upon  the  reflection  and  reproduction, 
in  the  crucifying  of  sin  in  the  penitent  beh'ever,  of  the  act  of 
expiation  accomplished  by  the  Lord  upon  the  cross.     That 
which  he  discourses  concerning  the  necessary  connection  of 
the  inner  crucifixion  of  sinful  humanity  with  the  absolutely 
typical    and  in    its  essential    character  pure    and    liberating 
crucifixion   of  the  Redeemer,  belongs  to   the   most  vigorous 
and  arousing  teaching  which  modern  evangelical  theosophy  has 
ever  produced  on  this  subject.     The  (spiritual)  crucifixion  of 
mankind  is  for  him   a  "  natural   consequence  of  its  present 
sensuous  state  and  its  suprasensuous  prospect.     It  is  a  neces- 
sary requirement  of  its  blissful  continuance  in  an  intransitory 
world,  the  true  world  of  God  ;  thither  hath  Christ  opened  the 
A\ay  for  mankind  through  sufi"ering,  thither  must  it  follow  Him 
through  suffering."     It  is  true  the  crucifixion  of  the  sensuous 
nature  or  the  old  man  necessary  in   order  to  enter  into  this 
eternal  world    of  God    can    never   be   effected    by  our   own 
power :  neither  the  practice  of  strict  morality  nor  the  endu- 
•  ranee  of  ascetic  rigours  contributes  in   reality  anything  to  its 
accomplishment.     "  This  power  to  kill  and  to  make  alive  be- 
longs to  God  alone,  even  as  the   physical  birth  and  physical 
death  depends  upon  Him.    But  the  instrument,  which  renders 
the    sensuous    man  first   desirous   of  another  life,  and   then 
gradually  ripened  for   it,  is    suffering  of   whatever  kind.     It 
impels  him  to  the  Mediator  of  both  worlds  proclaimed  to  him 
in  the  faith,  it  renders  for  him  his  faith  in  the  Mediator  pre- 
cious and  indispensable,  and  thus  continues  in  the  same  faith 
to  bind  him  ever  more  and  more  closely  to  Him  who,  by  the 
meritorious  power  of  His  suffering,  has  rendered  it  for  him  a 
true  benefit,  an   infallible  means  of  the  new    birth,  and   (as 
such)  much  more  easy  to  endure.     Not  only  does   he  see  in 
the  much   greater  pangs  of  the    Lord,  the  only  Just  One,  a 
consolatory  example,  but  he  also  knows  that  this  Righteous 
One,  who  has  made  atonement  for  his  unrighteousness,  has 
thereby  in  the  shortest  and  most  sublime  manner  annihilated 
this  unrighteousness,  and  calls  forth  in  him  the  most  perfect 
powers  by  the  making  of  him  a  sharer  of  His  own  afflictions/' 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  34 1 

etc.^  The  demand  that  this*  inner  judgment  of  crucifixion 
upon  the  old  man  be  carried  out  with  all  severity  and  con- 
sistency, without  any  kind  of  yielding  to  the  sensibility  of  the 
old  nature  and  its  shrinking  from  suffering,  and  without  any 
feeble  and  hesitating  standing  still  at  half-way  to  sanctifi ca- 
tion, is  made  by  Von  Meyer  with  great  distinctness  and 
earnestness.  "You  know  it  is  impossible  that  suffering  should 
cease  to  be  suffering  ;  the  cross  does  not  look  for  men  with- 
out  feeling Annihilation  of  our  impure,   sinful,    and 

foolish  self,  and  Divine  renewal,  yea,  a  becoming  one  with 
God,  is  the  design  and  mystery  of  the  cross."  ^  But  to  the 
severity  of  such  a  judgment  to  be  executed  upon  the  old  man 
corresponds  also  the  blessedness  of  the  reward  of  grace 
awaiting  the  patient  cross-bearer.  He  who  is  in  the  true 
spiritual  sense  crucified  with  Christ  "  will  not  be  willing  to  ex- 
change his  lot  with  any  one  who  stands  beneath  and  mocks 
him,  however  noble  and  prosperous  he  (this  mocker)  may 
be.  He  zvill  not  come  doivri.  again,  but  through — nicht  wieder 
hinunter,  sondern  hindurch — and  hears  evermore  in  his  smart 
the  sweet  words  of  immovable  firmness,  '  Verily  I  say  unto 
thee.  This  day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  paradise  ! '  For  those 
who  are  beneath  must  sooner  or  later  follow  him,  and  th< 
longer  it  is  deferred  for  them  owing  to  their  resistance,  sc 
much  the  more  painful  for  them  will  the  piercing  of  their 
hardened  mind  become.  Besides,  the  Redeemer,  with  whom 
the  suffering  one  dies,  sweetens  for  him  this  inner  death,  and 
so  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  suffering  alternates  with  great 
pleasantness,  and  the  languishing  and  desolation  with  un- 
speakable refreshings."  ^ 

It  may  be  that  not  all  these  deductions  of  the  noble  Frank- 
fort theosoph  rest  to  an  extent  absolutely  equal  upon  a  solid 
Biblical  foundation.    Particularly  the  reference  arising,  towards 

'  Das  Kreuz  Christi — Blcitta-  fiir  hohei-e  IVahrheit.  (Smaller  edition,  Bd.  ii., 
S.  438  ff.;  espec.  S.  441  f. ) 

-  As  before,  S.  442  f. — Here  is  then  added  the  passage  already  above  cited  (ch. 
V.  4,  for  ex.,  p.  239)  on  the  merely  relative  value  of  bodily  mortification  and  stig- 
matism. 

*  As  before,  S.  445  f. 


342  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

the  close  of  the  passages  here  cited,  to  a  continued  activity  of 
the  converting,  purifying,  and  redemptive  power  of  the  Cross 
of  Christ,  even  in  the  world  beyond  death,  during  an  inter- 
mediate  condition  between  death  and  the  final   state,  may 
seem    to   involve   a    questionable   tendency   to    purgatorial- 
apocatastatic  expectations,  similar  to  those  earlier  developed 
by  Douze-Tems  and  others  ;  with  the  supposition  of  which 
tendency  the  chiliastic  conception  of  the  future  of  the  king- 
dom of  Christ,  which  is  very  clearly  apparent  at  the  close  of 
the  treatise,  is  also  perfectly  in  harmony.     These  questionable 
sides,  however,  of   Meyer's    treatment  of  our  subject,  must 
at  any  rate  not  be  suffered  to  prevent  our  duly  appreciating 
the  many  excellences  of  the  same ;    it  must  especially  not 
close    our  eyes  to    that  point    on  which  Meyer  with  more 
vigour  and  clearness,  even  than  Bengel,  Roos  and  others,  in 
their  teaching  concerning   the  Cross,  advances    beyond  the 
contemplations  and  doctrinal  presentments,  devoted   to  the 
same  subject  on  the  part  of  earlier  writers.     We  recognise 
this  advance  at  once  in  the  very  clearly  perceptible  victory 
over  that  misty  element  of  alchemy  and  natural  philosophy, 
which  to  a  great  extent  still  darkens  those  contemplations  of 
Baader  falling  under  this  head, — an  element  which   Meyer, 
however,  even  if  he  in  other  respects  cherished  it  to  a  certain 
degree,  at  least  never  allowed  to  exert  a  disturbing  influence 
upon   his    profoundly   thoughtful    and    earnest   staurosophic 
conceptions.     But  we  recognise  also,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
an  important  advance  on  the  part  of  Meyer,  more  or   less 
too  already  in  some  of  his  immediate  predecessors  or  con- 
temporaries, such    as    Roos,  Menken,    Stilling,  etc.,  that    he 
duly  prizes  that  wondrously  effective,  mysteriously  irresistible, 
power  of  attraction,  exerted  by  the  cross  of  the  Lord,  in  living 
intercourse  with  the  devout  believing  soul,  in  its  high  signifi- 
cance for  the  inner  life  of  the  redeemed,  and  for  their  advaiice- 
inent  in  the  path  of  sanctification.     This  laying  stress  upon  the 
cross  of  Christ,  in  respect  of  its  importance  for  the  article  of 
sanctification  and  moral  perfecting  is  met  with,  though  only 
sporadically  here  and  there  it  may  be,  in  the  sermons  and 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  343 

writings  of  other  Lutheran  teachers  of  earlier  date ;  e.g:,  it  is 
hinted  at  in  the  prose  compositions  of  Scriver,  Hollaz,  Spener/ 
as  likewise  in  spiritual  song,  the  hymns  of  G.  Arnold  for 
instance,  "O  Durchbrecher,"  "  Richtet  auf  des  Heilands 
Leiden,"  yet  nowhere  is  this  importance  exemplified 
with  the  definite  emphasis  and  earnest  consistency  as  here. 
Melancthon's  classification  of  the  various  kinds  of  suffering  in 
accordance  with  their  approximation  to  the  true  cross ;  that 
which  was  advanced  by  Luther  on  different  occasions,  in  the 
same  direction  ;  the  powerfully  stimulating  teachings  and  ex- 
hortations of  a  Brenz,  a  Rhegius  and  others  on  our  topic,  had, 
with  all  their  wealth  of  ideas,  and  their  mighty  power  of  con- 
solation, yet  left  more  or  less  untouched  the  point  we  are  now 
considering:  the  increasing  interpenetration  of  the  objective 
and  the  subjective  factor  of  the  TJieologia  crucis,  the  turning 
to  account  of  the  idea  of  the  cross  in  the  interest,  not  merely 
of  the  doctrine  of  justification,  but  also  of  sanctification,  and 
of  the  endeavour  after  moral  perfection.  And  to  have  filled 
up  this  very  gap  in  the  earlier  reformational  doctrinal  tradi- 
tion, or  at  least  to  have  pointed  out  with  convincing  emphasis 
the  necessity  for  filling  it  up,  is  the  no  small  merit  of  the 
evangelical  theosophs  of  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  and 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  particularly  of  Meyer,  in 
whose  articles  on  the  cross,  here  somewhat  at  length  passed 
under  review,  the  ideas  of  this  school  are  brought  to  a 
specially  clear  and  vigorous  development. 

The  same  ideas,  or  at  least  ideas  closely  resembling  these, 
are  to  be  met  with  also  in  the  works  of  various  Protestant 
theologians,  of  the  most  recent  times,  not  belonging  to  the 
class  of  theosophs  ;•  and  remarkably  enough,  not  only  in  those 
of  the  representatives  of  the  positive  tendency,  such  as 
Tholuck  in  his  "  Doctrine  of  Sin  and  of  the  Reconciler,"  as 
well  as  in  several  of  his  discourses ;  Theremin  in  several 
places  of  his  justly  prized  collection  of  sermons,  entitled 
"The  Cross  of  Christ;"  E.  Sartorius  in  his  "Doctrine  of 

•  See  particularly  his  glorious  discourses,  "The  Cross,"  in  his  "  Evangelischer 
Glaubenstrost,"  1695. 


344  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Holy  Love  ; "  Beck  in  various  of  his  "  Christian  Discourses  ; " 
occasionally  also  SCHOEBERLEIN,  WUTTKE,  and  others.^ 
Several  also  of  the  more  distinguished  representatives  of  the 
modern  liberal  theology  have  recognised  the  high  importance 
which  attaches  to  the  doctrine  of  the  cross  of  the  Lord,  and 
— so  far  as  the  more  or  less  rationalistic  presuppositions 
which  they  cherish  with  regard  to  the  objective  side  of  Chris- 
tology  permitted  them — have  sought  to  develop  this  doctrine 
in  a  dogmatic-ethical  manner.  Thus  SCHLEIERMACHER,  in 
two  places  of  his  Doctrine  of  Faith,  treats  of  the  attractive 
power  of  the  Crucified  One,  and  of  the  quickening  operations 
which  proceed  from  Him  ;  while  De  Wette,  in  harmony  with 
his  symbolic-aesthetic  mode  of  contemplating  the  subject,  is 
intent  on  presenting  the  higher  significance  of  "  Christ  on  the 
cross,  as  a  type  of  the  human  race  purified  by  self-sacrifice  ;" 
and  the  Jena  theologian,  RUECKERT,  depicts  in  its  sin-slaying 
and  sanctifying  power  the  responsive  love  awakened  by  the 
communion  of  faith  with  the  Crucified,  not  without  tokens  of 
his  being  himself  under  the  power  of  this  love.^  The  attempt 
has  recently  been  made  to  draw  the  net  gain  from  the  pre- 
sentments of  these  latter,  as  well  as  from  the  earlier  theo- 
logical tradition,  on  the  part  of  A.  RiTSCHL,  in  his  great 
work    on    "The    Christian    Doctrine    of    Justification    and 

'  Tholuck,  Did  Lehre  von  der  Siindc  zind  dein  Versdhner,  1823,  also  in  several 
of  his  sermons  on  the  Passion  [the  latter  translated  by  Professor  Park.] 
Theremin,  Z'aj  Am^z  Christi,  Berlin,  1828 — 1841.  Sartorius,  Die  Lehre  von  der 
heili^^en  Liebe,'  Stuttg.  1861.  J.  T.  Beck,  Christi.  Lehrwissensckafi,  1841,  Pt.  i.; 
Christi.  Reden,  in  various  passages.  Besides  these,  also  Wuttke,  Christi.  Sitten- 
lehre,  ii.  235  ff.,  298  ff.  Schoberlein,  Die  Geheiimiisse  des  Glazibens,  90  if.,  136  ff. 
To  this  list  also  belongs  the  collection  of  sermons  by  Langbein  of  Dresden 
{Das  Wort  vom  Kreuze,  4  vols.,  Leipz.  1857  ff.),  the  work  of  F.  \V.  Krumma- 
cher  while  in  Potsdam  {Der  Leidende  Christies  [eighth  edn.  of  Engl.  tr. :  "  The 
Suffering  Saviour,"]  Berlin,  1854),  H.  Dalton  {Fred,  iiber  die  7  letzten  W.  am 
Kretize,  1871);  also  those  of  the  English  theologians  often  cited  by  us  above, 
McCheyne  Edgar  {The  Philosophy  of  the  Cross,  1874),  A.  B.  Mackay  {The  Glory 
of  the  Cross,  1874),  and  others.  Of  French  evangelical  theologians,  e.g.,  E.  de 
Pressense,  The  Mystery  of  Suffering;  Caesar  Malan,  The  True  Cross,  etc. 

-  Schleiermacher,  Der  Christi.  Glaube,  ii.  15,  94  ff.,  3te  Aufl.  De  Wette,  Z>^ 
morte  J.  Christi expiatoria{\%\i),  pp.  192,  256  sqq.  RUckert,  Theologie,  2  Bde., 
1851.     (Comp.  Ritschl,  i.,  S.  537.) 


IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  345 

Atonement,"  a  treatise,  which,  spite  of  its  many  one-sided- 
nesses  and  unjustified  attacks  upon  the  churchly  standpoint 
of  belief,  has  nevertheless  done  a  real  service — and  one  to 
which  by  no  means  the  lowliest  place  is  due  in  the  series  of 
its  varied  instructive  and  meritorious  disquisitions — by  the 
thorough  way  in  which  the  writer  has  drawn  renewed  atten- 
tion to  this  whole  domain,  and  illustrated  its  high  importance 
for  the  theoretical  and  practical  labour  of  the  Church  and  of 
the  Church  theology  of  the  present  day/ 

'  Chnstl.  Lehre  von  der  Rechtfertigung,  etc.,  iii.,  166  ff. ;  334  ff. ;  454  f. ;  549  ff. 
We  shall  have  occasion  below  to  refer  more  particularly  to  some  of  the  specially 
characteristic  utterances  among  those  here  cited. 


346  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 


VII. 

W§t  €xo%  m  tin  §resntt  m\h  Jfwtiut  of  tin  Qnvr^. 

WILL  the  many- thousand-voiced  chorus  of  Christian 
witnesses  to  the  truth,  whose  songs  of  praise  devoted 
to  the  cross  of  the  Lord  have,  in  that  which  we  have  hitherto 
written,  passed,  at  least  in  sorrie  of  their  most  characteristic 
notes  and  forms,  before  our  spirits'  ear  and  eye,  now  at  once 
have  to  cease  its  activity  ?  Can  the  series  of  the  nobler  and 
more  significant  of  the  phenomena  and  endeavours  falling 
under  this  head  be  regarded  as  having  attained  to  its  defini- 
tive historic  close ;  so  that,  after  drawing  the  facit  from  the 
development  up  to  this  time,  the  religion  of  the  cross  may  at 
once  be  borne  to  the  grave,  and  the  idea  of  a  dominion  over 
the  world  on  the  part  of  the  Christian  s}'mbol  of  salvation 
henceforth  be  spoken  of  only  as  a  romantic  fantasy  of  bygone 
ages  ? 

Some  things  in  the  course  of  development  of  the  cultus  of 
the  cross  in  the  Church,  so  far  as  it  has  already  passed  under 
our  observation,  might  indeed  seem  to  lend  countenance  to 
opinions  and  expectations  of  the  nature  here  indicated.  From 
the  fact  that  the  sensuous  staurolatry  of  the  post-Constantine 
age  encountered  an  opposition  of  increasing  strength,  and 
that  precisely  on  the  part  of  the  noblest  and  most  advanced 
living  witnesses  of  Christianity,  so  early  as  towards  the  close 
of  the  Middle  Ages ;  that  afterwards,  at  the  time  of  the  Re- 
formation, there  begins  an  increasing  spiritualising  and  refining 
of  the  idea  of  the  cross,  which  advances,  in  the  Reformed 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  34/ 

communion  with  pretty  considerable  rapidity  and  even  with 
impetuosity,  in  the  Lutheran  more  slowly  and  with  only 
partial  success,  to  the  almost  entire  abolition  of  the  sensuous 
factors  in  the  cultus  of  the  cross  :  from  this  gradual  replace- 
ment of  the  cnix  materialis  by  the  cntx  spiritualis,  at  least  in 
the  worship  of  the  Protestant  ecclesiastical  community,  one 
might  feel  tempted  to  draw  conclusions  in  favour  of  the 
supposition,  that  a  complete  laying  aside  of  the  last  remains 
of  the  external  religious  use  of  the  Christian  symbol  of 
salvation  awaits  us  in  a  no  very  distant  future.  Yet 
further  considerations  in  the  same  direction  may  have  to  be 
taken  into  account.  Thus  especially  the  fact  that  a  state 
of  mind  extremely  inclined  to  escape  from  the  cross,  nay, 
extremely  hostile  to  the  cross,  animates  the  great  mass, 
particularly  of  the  so-called  cultured  classes  of  our  day  ; 
that  the  cry  of  Voltaire,  "  Ecrassez  I'infame,"  has  become 
pretty  much  the  war-cry  of  many  thousands,  and  that  pre- 
cisely in  Germany;  that  the  decidedly  negative  answer  given 
by  Strauss,  professedly  in  the  name  of  public  opinion,  to  the 
question,  Are  we  any  longer  Christians }  is  in  reality  hailed 
with  joyful  bursts  of  applause  by  countless  representatives  of 
that  pubhc  opinion  ;  and  that  the  "self-dissolution  of  Christi- 
anity "^  predicted  by  the  pessimistic  allies  of  the  optimistic 
Strauss,  best  corresponds  to  the  wishes  and  expectations  of 
these  thousands  of  anti-Christian  worshippers  of  the  "  Zeit- 
geist" (spirit  of  the  age).  We  certainly  live  in  a  time  when 
with  all  earnestness  the  question  may  be  pondered  in 
Christian  lands,  whether  the  grave-yard  is  not  to  be  replaced 
by  the  furnace  of  cremation,  the  sepulchral  cross  by  the 
mortuary  urn.  What  Goethe  once  sang  as  a  wayward  youth, 
in  his  more  thoughtless  days,  when  the  petulance  of  Martial 
sometimes  counted  with  him  for  a  higher  and  better  canon 
than  true  poetic  refinement  and  classic  dignity — namely,  in 
the  notorious  Venetian  epigram — this  confession  of  the  great 

'  [Title  of  an  unhappily  popular  infidel  work  by  Ed.  v.  Hartmann,  of  which 
the  first  edition  appeared  at  Berlin  in  1869.  Six  editions  of  it  were  called  forth 
within  five  years.     See  above,  p  104,  note.] 


348  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

poet,  frivolous  as  it  is,  if  not  blasphemous,  has  borne  only  too 
rank  fruits  of  imitation  in  the  circle  of  latter  poetic  copiers 
and  idolisers.  And  not  that  they  were  ever  composed,  the 
insolent  verses  of  the  revolutionary  heaven-stormers  of  young 
Germany,  such  as  those  in  Herwegh's  "  Call  to  arms  "  :  "  Tear 
the  crosses  out  of  the  earth,  let  them  all  be  turned  into 
swords !  God  in  heaven  will  excuse  it,"  or  in  Rob.  Prutz's 
"Kreuz  und  Rosen  "  (1862)  : 

"  Nur  mil"  kein  Kreuz  aiifs  Grab  gesetzt, 
Sei's  Holz,  sei's  Eisen  oder  Stein  ! 
Stets  hat's  die  Seele  mir  verletzt 
Das  Martyrholz  voll  Blut  und  Pein  : 

Dass  eine  Welt  so  gottbeseelt, 

So  voller  Wonne  um  und  um 

Zu  ihres  Glaubens  Symbolum 

Sich  einen  Galgen  hat  ervvahlt. 

***** 

Drum  nicht  das  Kreuz  mir  auf  das  Haupt ! 

Pflanzt  Rosen  um  mein  Grab  herum  ; 

Die  Rose  sei  das  Symbolum, 

Dran  eine  neue  Menschheit  glaubt  !  " — 

not  that  anything  of  this  kind  has  been  composed  in  the 
German  tongue,  but  that  it  has  been  circulated  with  the 
approval  of  thousands  upon  thousands  in  Germany,  and  that 
the  sentiment  and  mode  of  thought  which  expresses  itself 
therein  has  become  the  publicly  acknowledged  spiritual  patri- 
mony of  powerful  parties  in  the  state  life  of  the  present  day : 
this  fact  is  certainly  such  as  to  awaken  in  minds  of  little  faith 
the  delusion  that  within  a  period  of  no  great  length  the  last 
hour  of  Christianity  will  have  struck,  that  there  will  at  least 
soon  be  no  longer  room  for  speaking  of  a  profession  of  the 
religion  of  Jesus  the  Crucified  on  the  part  of  our  people  and 
land. 

The  bearing  too  of  the  Romish  Church,  numerically  the 
most  powerful  branch  or  stem  of  Christendom,  in  relation  to 
the  question  before  us  is  only  too  much  such  as  to  lend  sup- 
port to  such  fears  as  are  here  indicated.  The  Romish  Church 
clings  tenaciously  to  the  sensuous-external  and  superstitious 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  349 

cultus  of  the  cross  of  the  Mediaeval  phase  of  the  development 
of  Christianity,  without  essential  modifications  of  any  kind. 
It  is  a  significant  and  characteristic  utterance  which  Pio  Nino, 
the  ominous  Cntx  de  cnice  of  the  prophetic  succession  of 
Popes  in  the  pseudo-Malachi,'^  is  said  to  have  addressed  to  the 
renowned  spiritualist  Home  after  his  accession  to  Catholicism. 
"  This  is  our  magic  wand,"  he  is  reported  to  have  said,  on  ex- 
tending to  him  a  crucifix  to  kiss."  Crucifix  and  sign  of  the 
cross  are  in  reality,  with  the  Romish  Church,  still  only  conjur- 
ing means,  to  which  magic  effects  of  the  most  diverse  nature 
are  ascribed.  In  respect  of  the  truly  displeasing  frequency 
of  the  application  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the  majority  of 
her  liturgical  acts,  the  ostentations  and  challenging  part  which 
she  has  lately  again  assigned  to  her  procession  crosses  and 
pilgrimage  crosses  in  the  favourite  "explosions"  of  the  ultra- 
montane popular  feeling  in  France,  and  similar  displays,  the 
Church  of  Rome  may  still  claim  above  others  the  right  to  be 
designated  the  Church  of  the  Cross,  i.e.,  of  the  external 
.  adoration  of  the  cross.  Dr.  Pusey  is  perhaps  justified  in  the 
reproach  he  brings  against  her,  of  having  gradually  ceased  to 
be  a  Church  of  Christ  and  become  a  "  Church  of  Mary,"  and 
in  the  words  of  earnest  warning  in  which  he  points  out  to  her 
the  danger,  that  sooner  or  later  "  the  collapse  of  her  baseless 
system  of  doctrines  as  to  the  prerogatives  of  Mary  may  bury 
with  itself  in  its  ruins  the  belief  in  Christ."^  But  with  the 
Mariolatry  is  also  most  closely  connected  the  staurolatry ;  as 
also  the  adoration  of  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament  of 
the  altar,  as  well  as  the  latest  bosom  child  of  the  Jesuitically 
degenerate  cultus  tradition  of  this  Church — the  delicately 
toying  devotion  to  the  sacred  heart  of  Jesus — are  nothing 
else  but  particular  secondary  forms  of  the  idolatrous-supersti- 

'  Comp.  what  Bishop  Hefele  wrote  as  late  as  7th  July,  1875,  upon  the  papal 
chief,  after  having,  it  is  true,  in  the  meantime  made  humble  submission  to  him: 
"  Crux  de  c?-uce ;  after  he  has  lost  the  temporal  power,  he  will  now  also  desolate 
the  Church." 

-  Perty,  Die  tuystische  Erscheinungen  der  menschlichen  Natur,  ii.  41. 

'  Eirenicon  :  or  the  Church  of  England  a  portion  of  Christ's  one  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  etc.,  Oxf.  and  Lond.,  1S66,  i.,  p.  258. 


350  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

tious  adoration  of  the  external  symbol  of  redemption.  Let 
any  one  also  think  of  the  superstition,  partaking  of  the  nature 
of  fetich-worship,  practised  by  the  Roman  populace  of  the 
city  and  province,  under  the  inducement  of  the  most  lavish 
proclamations  of  indulgence,  and  consisting  of  the  kissing  of 
certain  sacred  crosses  of  wood  or  iron,  more  especially  on 
Good  Friday;^  of  the  bewildering  theatrical  display  at  the 
Good  Friday  celebration  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  at  which  a 
great  suspended  cross,  lit  up  with  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  tapers,  is  gazed  upon  and  adored.  Let  him  in  like 
manner  call  to  mind  such  apologetic  products  of  modern. 
Ultramontanism  as  the  apotheosis  even  of  the  most  childish 
of  the  miracles  of  the  cross,  the  defence  even  of  the  most 
quixotic  legends  of  the  thaumaturgic  operations  of  the 
crucifix — e.g.,  that  of  the  oft-repeated  flight  through  the  air 
of  St.  Joseph  of  Copertino  [t  1663]  to  a  crucifix  of  wood 
suspended  high  upon  the  wall,  a  flight  explained  on  the 
ground  of  "  mystic  attraction  " — as  is  done  in  the  "  Mystik  " 
of  Gorres  and  in  similar  writings.^  Let  him  ponder  over  the 
stigmatic  manifestations  of  the  present  day,  and  the  use  to 
which  they  are  put  in  the  interests  of  ecclesiastical  politics, 
on  the  part  of  our  Ultramontanes,  who  know  how  to  attach 
even  to  the  stigmatisation  of  a  Louise  Lateau  of  Bois  d'Haine 
" a  significance  in  the  German  Church  conflict"!  Let  him 
meditate  on  the  continued  existence  even  of  that  much  ruder 
form  of  the  ascetics  of  the  cross  once  flourishing  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  which  we  became  acquainted  with  as  a  self- 
mortification  by  the  dragging  about  of  heavy  cruciform  planks 
of  wood,  a  practice  which  the  Swiss  traveller  Keller  quite 
recently  saw  actually  exemplified  in  the  West  India  island  of 
Trinidad,  in  the  case  of  Moxos  Indians,  converts  of  Jesuit 
missionaries,  who  in  the  processions  with  difficulty  dragged 
about  excessively  heavy  wooden  crosses,  chained  to  the  naked 
leg  ^ — a  strange  living  monument  and  relic  of  those  renowned 

'  Hase,  Protestant.  Folemik,  S.  557,  570. 

^  Gorres,  Mystik,  ii.  520  fif.;  comp.  Perty,  as'before,  413. 

*  Keller  Leuzinger,  Vo!n  A/nazonas  mid  Madeira,  Stuttgart  1S74. 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  35  I 

Indian  missions  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  the  successes  of 
which  were  in  reality  due  to  the  alternate  use  of  the  cross  now 
as  a  rod  and  now  as  a  magic  wand  ! 

The  Romish  Church  is  in  general  a  church  of  anachron- 
isms;  on  that  account  the  anachronisms  too  of  the  kind  just 
indicated  in  its  practice  of  the  present  day  cannot  surprise  us. 
Nor  can  we,  on  the  other  hand,  feel  surprise  if  the  wilder 
currents  of  the  spirit  of  the  age  surge  passionately  against 
its  obstinate  maintenance  of  such  ideas  and  customs  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  let  no  small  share  of  their  hostility  also 
be  expended  upon  other  churches  fighting  under  the  same 
banner,  all  unconcerned  about  their  essentially  different  way 
of  life  and  mode  of  fighting.  Whether  the  Lutheran  Church 
is  any  longer  to  be  permitted  to  retain  her  religious  use  of 
the  cross,  confined  as  it  is  to  the  noble  proportion  of  primitive 
Christian  simplicity,  whether  she  is  not  presently  to  be  forced 
to  conform  to  the  rite  of  the  severer  type  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  this  domain,  on  this  question  may  the  "cultur- 
kampfer"  (champions  of  culture)  of  the  present  day — the  longer 
continuance  of  their  mixing  up  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the 
ecclesiastical  confessions  being  presupposed — very  soon  be 
inclined  to  raise  very  serious  discussions.  And  with  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  signing  of  oneself  with  the  holy  cross,  still 
defended  with  manly  courage  by  CI.  Harms,  Avith  the  holding 
up  to  ridicule  of  the  characteristic  practices  of  early  Lutheran- 
ism,  such  as  that  of  the  morning  and  evening  blessing  still 
admired  with  affectionate  reverence  by  Leopold  Ranke,  they 
would  then  hardly  rest  satisfied.  Behind  the  culture  cham- 
pions of  to-day  stand  mocking  and  fiercely  grinning  those 
of  the  future,  who  will  only  be  satisfied  with  a  fresh  re- 
hearsal of  the  crusades  of  wild  megseras  against  the  images 
of  Christ  in  schools  and  churches  which  came  into  play  under 
the  Paris  commune.  For  to  this  they  are  impelled,  these 
disciples  of  the  "  New  Faith,"  proceeding  as  they  do  beyond 
Strauss  himself.  His  deliverance  to  the  effect  that  "  the 
humanity  of  the  present  day,  with  its  love  of  life  and  action, 
can  never  be  any  longer  contented  with  the  emblem  of  the 


35  2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

cross,  the  harsh  embodiment  of  the  Christian  world-shunning 
and  passivity,"  ^  they  thankfully  accept ;  but  of  his  exhorta- 
tions to  tolerance  and  moderation  his  in  other  respects  docile 
scholars  will  hear  nothing.  That  which  heathen  Japan  once 
compelled  the  professors  of  the  religion  of  the  cross  within 
the  range  of  its  authority  to  do,  that  may  the  legislation  of 
degenerate  sons  of  Christendom,  perhaps  before  any  very 
lengthened  interval  of  time  has  elapsed,  dictate  to  the  stead- 
fast confessors  of  faith  in  Jesus.  U abolition  des  pratiques  in- 
Jiij'ienses  an  CJiristianisDie  would  then  yet  again,  as  once  in 
the  not  exactly  glorious  history  of  the  commercial  relations 
between  Holland  and  Japan,  have  to  form  an  aim  of  slow 
and  toilsome  attainment  for  the  politics  of  protecting  powers 
favourable  to  the  Christians. 

We  are  here  depicting  no  unreal  creation  of  the  fancy,  no 
erl-king  or  spectral  form  devoid  of  flesh  and  blood.      The 
more  than  ferocious  hostility  to  the  cross  on  the  part  of  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  members  of  the  Internationale, 
is  a  factor  with  which  the  Christian  politician  of  our  day  must 
necessarily  reckon.     It  is  also  very  much  a  question  which 
current  will  at  first  obtain  the  upper  hand,  whether  that  of 
the  more  peaceful  Straussians,  who  would  content  themselves 
with  imposing  that  "blockade"  already  predicted  by  Schleier- 
macher,  that  "  complete  starving  out  of  all  science,"  ^  or,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  of  the  communistic  ultras,  prepared  for 
storming  all  that  is  sacred.     In  any  lengthened  continuance 
of  the  reign   of  terror  of  these  latter  which  threatens  us, 
perhaps  at  no  very  distant  day,  certainly  no  rational  person 
will  be  found  to  believe.     But  when  it  has  raged  itself  out, 
the  wild  hurricane,  to  whom  will  the  further  future  then  be- 
long }     Will  the  honest  and  decided  disciples  of  Strauss  then 
have  the  domain  which  used  to  be  called  Christian  or  churchly 
to  dispose  of;  or  will  it  once  more  be  only  the  "  Half,"  and 
not  the  "  Whole,"  ^  to  whom  we  must  look  for  the  building  up 

'  Der  Alte  u.d.  Neue  Glaube,  etc.,  S.  93. 

^  See  Schleiermacher's  letter  to  Liicke,  Theol.  Studien  u.K7-itikcii,  1829,  8.489^ 
^  ["Die  Halben  und  die  Ganzen  "  is  the  title  of  a  work  published  by  David 
Strauss  in  1865,  which  is  directed  against  the  standpoint  of  Sclienkel.] 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE   CHURCH.  35  3 

and  extension  of  the  religion  of  the  future  ?  Will  it  be 
gifted  members  of  the  new  Deistic-church  of  Herr  Richard 
V.  d.  Aim  for  instance,  men  inclined  to  retain  the  cross  in 
their  churches — not  indeed  as  emblematic  of  redemption,  but 
yet  as  a  "primeval  symbol  expressing  the  direction  of  the 
four  cardinal  points,  the  universe,  infinity  in  relation  to  space," 
and  to  retain  this  symbol  alike  in  the  form  of  a  statue  crowned 
with  ivy,  as  of  a  solemn  act  of  crossing  made  with  the  finger 
at  the  close  of  the  service  ?  ^  Or  adherents  of  that  Union 
which,  spite  of  its  radical  mode  of  proceeding  against  every 
form  of  church  dogma,  once  sang  at  the  Turnhalle  in  Berlin 
(1869)  the  verse: 

"  The  edifice  of  all  worlds  in  ruin  sinks, 
The  heavens  themselves  do  pass  away, 
The  cross  of  Christ  must  stand  "  ? 

or  perhaps  future  European  partisans,  gathered  from  among 
reformed  Jews  and  ex-Christians,  to  the  standard  of  the 
eloquent  advocate  of  the  Brahmoists  of  India,  Keshub  Chunder 
Sen,  who,  in  one  of  his  addresses  inspired  with  the  idea  of 
human  culture,  characterised  "  the  love  of  our  enemies  and 
self-denial  after  the  example  of  Christ  as  the  prime  con- 
dition of  human  prosperity  in  Europe  as  in  Asia,"  and  spoke 
of  the  cross  on  which  Jesus  died  as  the  mirror  and  powerful 
incentive  to  a  life  in  such  a  spirit  ?  ^ 

A  Christianity  remodelled  on  the  reform  plans  of  these 
latter  parties  would  perhaps  be  preferable  to  the  irreligion — 
pure  and  simple — of  the  Straussians,  or  of  the  professors  of 
the  absolute  Monism  a  la  Hackel.  Were  it  only  conceivable 
that  such  an  intermediate  form  between  humanistic  cultus  of 
the  spirit  of  the  age  and  the  following  of  Christ  could  be 
proved  to  be  tenable,  or  that  religious  communities  capable 
of  exerting  the  power  of  life  could  proceed  therefrom  !     But 

'  Rich.  V.  d.  Aim,  Theologische  Briefe  an  die  Gebildsten  der  aeutschen  Nation. 
3  Bde.,  Leipzig,  1862. 

'^  "Jesus  Christ,  Europe  and  Asia;  "  address  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen. — Protest. 
K.  Ztg.,  1874,  Nos.  10  and  11.  On  the  high  esteem  in  which  the  emblem  of  the 
cross  is  held  on  the  part  of  the  adherents  of  the  Brahmo-Somaj  faith,  comp.  also 
Contemp.  Review,  Aug.,  1870,  p.  70. 

23 


354  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

it  is  precisely  this  possibility  which  we  must  call  in  question. 
Between  the  attraction  to  the  service  of  the  world  and  the 
cultus  of  the  Zeitgeist  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  attraction 
which  draws  into  the  service  of  the  Crucified  on  the  other,  a 
stable  middle-position  can  never  be  attained.  The  attraction 
to  the  Crucified,  where  it  is  really  present,  will  constantly 
prove  itself  stronger  than  that  to  the  world  and  to  conformity 
to  the  world.  Whatsoever  therefore  there  is  that  is  Christian 
in  those  tendencies  of  the  "half"  will,  especially  under  the 
pressure  and  impression  of  the  conflicts  with  the  "whole" 
enemies  of  Christ,  become  entirely  Christian  and  churchly. 
The  cross  of  the  Redeemer  will  still  exert  its  attractive  power 
(John  xii.  32)  upon  many  of  the  strong  ones  who  come  too 
near  to  Him.  It  will  become  for  many  a  one  a  corner-stone 
on  which  he  is  dashed  to  pieces,  but  will  also  prove  itself  for 
many  others  a  powerful  lodestone  which  irresistibly  draws 
him  into  the  bliss-giving  communion  of  life  with  the  Three- 
one  God.  An  indistinct  wavering  or  double-hearted  wish  to 
form  a  compact  between  cross  and  world,  between  the  Spirit 
of  God  and  the  spirit  of  the  age,  between  the  Christian  prin- 
ciple of  faith  and  the  modern  principle  of  culture,  is  in  any 
case  possible  only  so  long  as  one  clings  to  the  delusion  that 
there  can  be  a  faith  in  the  Crucified,  which  is  not  at  the  same 
time  a  faith  in  the  truly  and  bodily  Risen  One !  Long  ago 
has  its  annihilating  sentence  been  pronounced  upon  such  a 
delusion,  long  ago  has  Paul  called  out  in  thunder-tones  of 
judgment  to  those  who  would  rock  themselves  to  sleep  in 
deceptive  fancies  of  this  kind,  "  If  Christ  be  not  raised,  your 
faith  is  vain  :  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins.  Then  they  also  which 
are  fallen  asleep  in  Christ  are  perished  (lost) !  "  There  is  no 
true  entering  into  the  communion  of  the  sufTerings  of  the 
Lord,  which  is  not  at  the  same  time  a  living,  powerfully 
convincing  recognition  of  the  power  of  His  resurrection  ! 
Boast  if  you  will  of  the  "  purely  human  emotions,"  the 
genuinely  human  tenderness  and  depth  of  feeling  which  the 
impression  of  the  Crucified  One,  contemplated  as  the  Ideal 
Man — who  has  died,  but  after  all  only  died,  for  the  idea  of 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  35  5 

humanity — is  able  to  produce ;  remind  us  if  you  will  of  the 
testimony  once  given  even  by  a  Diderot,  in  the  circle  of  Baron 
Holbach,  for  the  irresistibly  attractive  power  and  touching 
effect  of  the  Gospel  account  of  the  sufferings  and  death  of 
Jesus;  point  us  to  the  judgment  of  aDevrient  upon  the  passions- 
spiel  of  the  Oberammergau  (1850),  or  to  the  recent  flocking 
of  thousands  of  Berliners,  among  them  also  numerous  children 
of  the  world,  to  the  exhibition  of  E.  v.  Gebhardt's  painting  of 
the  Crucifixion,  as  a  representation  bringing  out  the  human 
side  of  the  Passion  with  unwonted  effect,  and  on  this  very 
account  producing  a  deep  impression  upon  others !  ^  If  by 
these  instances  it  is  sought  to  prove  the  necessity  that,  in 
order  to  produce  living  faith  and  loving  self-surrender  to  the 
Saviour,  a  purely  human  view  and  presentation  of  His  passion 
to  the  exclusion  of  all  conceptions  of  His  Divinity,  is  what 
is  demanded  ;  then,  in  order  to  maintain  this  position,  one 
must  surrender  himself  to  the  strangest  infatuation,  an  in- 
fatuation which  a  passing  glance,  e.g.,  at  Diderot  and  the 
frivolous  materialistic  spirit  which,  spite  of  that  confession  of 
the  power  and  beauty  of  the  Bible,  {de  ce  diable  de  livre!) 
dominated  him  to  the  end  of  his  life,  ought  sufficiently  to 
dissipate.  It  was  something  more  than  purely  human  dignity 
in  suffering  and  death,  which  beamed  forth  to  the  youthful 
Zinzendorf  (1719,  at  Dusseldorf)  from  the  grief-stricken  visage 
of  Correggio's  Ecce  Homo,  and  rendered  him  throughout  the 
whole  of  his  career  of  abundant  activity  a  confessor  of  the 
life-maxim,  "  I  have  but  one  passion  :  it  is  He,  only  He  !  " 
The  first  steps  on  the  path  of  following  the  Crucified  One 
may  be  successfully  made  by  one  who  perceives  in  Him  only 
the  Crucified,  the  man  perfected  in  death,  and  still  continu- 
ing to  live  in  spirit.  But  so  soon  as  the  more  difficult  part 
begins,  so  soon  as  after  the  sweet  we  have  also  to  taste  the 
bitter  fruit  of  the  cross,  so  soon  as  we  are  called  seriously  to 
experience  the  communion  of  the  Saviour's  sufferings,  and  in 
addition  to  the  sufferings  of  purification  and  discipline  we 
have  also  manfully  and  victoriously  to  endure  the  sufferings 

*  Comp.  V.  Leixner-Griinberg,  in  the  Protest.  K.  Ztg.,  1874. 


356  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

of  testimony,  true  mai'tyrinm  in  Melancthon's  sense  of  the 
term,  then  becomes  manifest  the  powerlessness  of  the  one 
trusting  only  in  the  man  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  not  also  in 
the  eternal  Son  of  God  ;  then  appears  the  insufficiency  of  that 
standpoint  which  denies  the  everlasting  redemption  brought 
in  through  the  heavenly  high-priesthood  of  the  God-man — 
appears  in  the  most  pitiable  manner  and  with  ruinous  effect 
for  those  misled  by  this  view. 

The  humiliation  of  the  Lord  upon  the  cross,  and  His  exalta- 
tion to  Divine  glory,  the  suffering  humanity  and  the  victorious 
Divinity,  belong  of  necessity  inseparably  the  one  to  the  other, 
like  the  two  halves  of  one  ring.  It  is  a  piece  of  one-sidedness 
to  wish  to  have,  enjoy,  and  cultically  exalt,  solely  and  alone 
the  glory  of  the  Crucified  One,  as  we  saw  done  by  the  Chris- 
tendom of  the  early  and  middle  ages,  after  the  example  of 
Constantine  and  Helena.  But  it  is  no  less  a  one-sidedness 
to  emphasise  exclusively  and  alone  the  lowly  condition  of  the 
Crucified  One,  and  accordingly  to  assign  to  the  Church,  the 
spiritual  body  which  He  forms  to  Himself  out  of  mankind,  a 
participation  only  in  the  sorrowful  and  shameful  lowly  side  of 
His  redeeming  work. 

"  If  we  die  with  Him,  we  shall  also  live  with  Him  ; 
If  we  suffer,  we  shall  also  reign  with  Him."  (2  Tim.  ii.  11,  12.) 

It  is  an  unalterable  fundamental  law  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  that  after  suffering  follows  glory :  they  that  mourn  shall 
be  comforted  (Matt.  v.  4 ;  2  Cor,  i.  7  ;  Rom.  viii.  17  ;  i  Peter 
i.  11).  Only  a  one-sidedly  spiritualistic,  or  rather  rationalistic, 
theological  would-be  wisdom,  can  wish  to  attenuate  the  gloria 
crticis,  the  divinely  fair  converse  and  necessary  counterpart 
to  the  ignorninia  cnicis,  into  something  abstract  and  beyond 
the  grave  (Jenseitigkeit) ;  in  such  wise  that  it  should  signify 
in  relation  to  Christ  Himself  a  spiritual  continuance  of  life  in 
the  idea  of  love  which  is  effective  among  His  followers,  or  in 
some  kind  of  spiritualising  and  deification  a  parte  post,  how- 
ever this  may  be  conceived  of;  in  relation  to  the  Church, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  remaining  constantly  subject  to  cross, 
shame,  and  humiliation  on  this  side  the  grave,  without  any 


IN    THE    PRESENT   AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  357 

other  hope  of  any  kind  than  that  of  consolation  and  deliver- 
ance in  the  world  beyond.  This  would  be  to  depart  widely 
from  that  which  the  Reformers  wrote  concerning  the  cross  as 
a  salutary  and  highly  necessary  corrective  for  the  Church  in 
her  earthly  condition.  It  never  entered  their  minds  to  repre- 
sent the  empirically  present  actual  connection  between  the 
Church  and  the  cross  as  a  logically  necessary  one,  and  one 
absolutely  essential  to  the  weal  of  the  Church  in  all  time,  and 
thus  to'  declare  the  cross  to  be  an  inalienable  attribute  of  the 
Church,  a  nota  ecclesice  of  the  same  rank  as  Word  and  Sacra- 
ment are  declared  to  be  in  Art.  7  of  the  Augsburg  Confession. 
It  was  not  the  intention  of  Luther  to  assert  anything  of  this 
kind,  when,  in  the  treatise  "Von  den  Conciliis  und  Kirchen," 
he  enumerated,  as  the  last  of  the  main  features  or  charac- 
teristic marks  whereby  the  "  Christianly  holy  people  "  of  the 
Church  is  to  be  recognised,  also  the  "  salutary  mystery  of  the 
holy  cross  ;  "  nor  had  Melancthon  anything  similar  before  his 
mind,  when  in  the  development  of  the  article  of  the  cross  in  his 
Loci,  he  took  as  his  starting-point  the  favourite  thesis,  "  that 
the  Church  in  this  life  is  subjected  to  the  cross  and  afflictions" 
(ecclesiam  in  hac  vita  subiectam  esse  cruci  et  afflictionibus), 
or  when,  in  the  Apology,  he  declared  such  an  enlargement  of 
the  notion  of  "  sacrament"  to  be  possible,  that  eventually  also 
cross  and  afflictions,  as  also  alms,  prayer,  etc.,  might  be  com- 
prehended under  it.^  Only  in  its  degenerate  form,  as  present 
among  the  Anabaptists,  as  a  "  worldly  kingdom  "  composed 
exclusively  of  pious  and  holy  citizens — not  in  a  milder  and 
more  spiritual  conception,  as  a  kingdom  of  freedom  and  pros- 
perity, after  the  times  of  oppression  and  trouble — is  the 
exposition  of  the  chiliastic  idea  (as  this  is  derived  from  Rev. 
XX.)  rejected  by  the  17th  Art.  of  the  Attgustana.  The  "ulti- 
mate deliverance  from  all  afflictions,"  which  Melancthon  in 
an  important  passage  of  his  Loci  holds  forth  as  the  prospect 
of  the  oppressed  and  suffering  Church,^  is  by  no  means  con- 

'  Apol.  Conf.,  Art.  xiii.,  p.  204  M.     Comp.  above,  p.  279  of  our  exposition. 

*  Deus,  quum  punit,  promittit  auxilium  et  mitigationem  malorum  et  libera- 
tionem ;  .  .  .  liberet  Deus  suam  Ecclesiam  tandem  ex  omnibus  miseriis.  {Loc. 
tert.  cEtat.,  p.  946  Br.) 


3  58  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

ceived  of  as  an  abstractly  spiritual  and  future  one  (jenseltige). 
Ecclesiastical  pessimism  receives  no  kind  of  support  from  th^ 
testimony  of  the  Reformers  in  their  teaching ;  either  by  that 
which  they  have  taught  concerning  the  Church,  or  by  their 
teaching  concerning  the  cross.  "  The  Church  is  for  them  a 
bearer  of  the  cross,  is  as  an  earthly  Church  always  a  cross- 
bearer  ;  but  not  in  the  sense  that  they  conceived  of  the  cross 
of  the  Lord  which  she  is  called  to  bear  exclusively  as  the 
instrument  of  suffering  and  brand  of  shame,  so  that  slie  may 
not  also  temporarily,  yea  even  in  a  certain  sense  always  and 
constantly,  receive  a  part  too  in  the  glory  and  victory  of  the 
Crucified  One  !  Only  an  exceedingly  one-sided  ecclesiastical 
subjectivism  could  rest  content  and  feel  satisfied  with  such  a 
condition  of  the  Church,  in  which  her  form  of  the  cross — even 
when  this  arises  from  a  melancholy  want  of  spontaneity  and 
enslavement  by  the  power  of  the  State — should  be  regarded 
as  a  normal  condition,  and  voted  permanent.  If  any  one 
would  permanently  force  upon  the  Church  such  condition  of 
unfreedom  (and  we  are  here  speaking  in  the  first  place  of  the 
Evangelical  Church  [as  distinguished  from  the  Romish],  and 
particularly  that  of  Germany),  then  precisely  the  duty  of  ener- 
getic resistance  against  such  violence  would  be  that  cross 
which  the  Lord  imposed  upon  her,  not  with  a  view  to  consign 
her  to  everlasting  and  hopeless  continuance  in  such  conflict, 
but  in  order  to  lead  her,  tried  by  such  steadfast  combating 
and  suffering,  to  victory  and  peace.  .  .  .  There  are  inalienable 
rights  and  interests  of  the  Church  which  it  behoves  her  to 
maintain  with  treasure  and  blood,  with  body  and  soul,  and 
not  to  maintain  which  is  the  true  shunning  of  the  cross  and 
hostility  towards  it  ;  even  though  a  Church  deprived  of  those 
rights  may  at  the  first  glance  appear  poorer  and  more  con- 
formed to  the  cross,  than  one  asserting  the  possession  of  them. 
The  Church  as  evangelical,  as  having  her  appointed  place 
under  the  cross  of  Christ,  may  suffer  and  bear  much  for  Jesus 
Christ's  sake ;  she  may  allow  herself  to  be  deprived  of  every- 
thing— everything  except  her  confession  !  He  who  touches 
her   confession,    does    not   seek    to   impose   upon   her   some 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  359 

specially  heavy  and  painful  cross  ;  he  aims  at  her  life.     As 
jjpposed  to  such  assaults,  not  endurance  and  patience,  but 
energetic  self-defence,  is  a  sacred  duty."  ^ 

We  repeat  here  these  thoughts,  presented  elsewhere  a  year 
ago,  because  the  opinion  that  a  condition  of  suffering,  consist- 
ing in  a  continued  spoliation  of  her  goods  and  an  increasing 
limitation  of  her  free  activity,  is  for  the  Evangelical  Church 
something  naturally  to  be  expected,  and  scarcely  involving 
an  act  of  injustice  against  her,  is  an  opinion  not  only  most 
extensively  diffused  in  our  day  among  those  who  cherish 
hostility  towards  the  Church,  but  also  greatly  favoured  and 
countenanced  by  the  advances  of  ill-judged  advocates  of  the 
Church's  interests.  When,  for  instance,  a  distinguished  and 
on  many  points  meritorious  theologian  like  A.  Ritschl,  while 
on  the  one  hand  laying  emphatic  stress — as  we  have  above 
thankfully  pointed  out — upon  the  high  significance  of  the 
article  of  cross  and  suffering  in  the  total  organism  of  evan- 
gelical doctrine,  and  while  he  would  have  a  greater  place  than 
hitherto  has  been  the  case  in  our  works  of  Dogmatics  and 
Ethics  conceded  to  the  truth  "  that  the  Christian  occupies  an 
exactly  opposite  relation  towards  the  cross  of  suffering  to  that 
of  the  natural  man,"  as  also  to  the  enjoining  of  the  virtues  of 
Christian  patience,  humility,  power  in  prayer,  etc.,  yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  endeavours,  after  the  manner  of  a  really  extreme 
Christian  subjectivism,  to  hold  apart  and  separate  Church  and 
Kingdom  of  God,  and  in  opposition  to  the  positive  churchly 
theology — against  which  he  brings  the  reproach  of  hierarchical 
schemings  and  ecclesiastico-political  agitation,  ill-guided  pas- 
toral zeal,  coursing  with  the  name  of  God  in  the  domain  of 
public  hfe,  the  calling  forth  of  a  churchliness  which  loves  to 
display  itself  in  the  market-place,  and  other  evil  things  of  a 
like  nature — recommends  an  essentially  unfree,  oppressed 
condition  of  the  Church,  and  one  in  which  she  is  incapable 
of  powerful  independent  action,  in  her  relations  to  the  modern 

'  The  Article  of  the  Cross  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Reformers  in  its  significance 
for  the  Evangelical  Church  of  the  present  di:i.y. —Evang.  K,  Ztg.^  1874,  No.  48, 
S.  533  ff. 


26o  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

temporal  powers,  and  in  particular  contests  her  right  to  the 
unrestricted  maintenance  of  her  confession,  and  in  the  domain 
of  doctrine  either  recommends  or  demands  the  most  serious 
concessions  to  modern  infallible  science :  ^  there  is  to  be  per- 
ceived in  all  this  a  view  of  that  which  is  obligatory  and 
necessary  for  the  Church  of  the  present  day,  which  we  cer- 
tainly are  not  able  to  enrol  in  the  class  of  sound  Church 
political  counsels ;  with  regard  to  which  we  believe,  on  the 
other  hand,  that,  while  cautiously  entertained,  it  may  be  able 
to  contribute  something  to  the  weal  of  evangelical  Christen- 
dom, yet,  in  the  hands  of  clumsy  workmen,  it  is  in  a  position 
with  equal  ease  to  exert  a  truly  disintegrating  effect  upon 
the  Church's  faith  and  life.  From  the  standpoint  of  a  specu- 
lative rationalism,  most  seriously  departing  from  the  teaching 
of  the  Church  in  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  God  and  Christ,  as 
also  to  that  of  sin, — from  this  standpoint  to  preach  to  the  con- 
gregation repentance,  and  to  lead  it  more  deeply  into  the 
cross,  seems  to  us  hardly  practicable ;  the  protest  which  will 
be  raised  by  those  who  decidedly  espouse  the  interests  of  the 
Church,  against  such  action,  we  believe  to  be  in  all  essential 
respects  justified. 

We  are  certainly  persuaded  that  our  Church  will  have  at 
first  to  be  more  deeply  immersed  in  the  baptism  of  sufferings 
than  heretofore,  and  to  be  kept  in  the  school  of  the  cross  for 
the  gathering  of  yet  more  abundant  and  precious  experiences 
than  she  has  yet  made.  The  compass  of  that  which  she  has 
to  experience  and  to  learn  with  regard  to  the  cn/x  spiritualis, 
appears  to  us  by  no  means  exhausted  yet.  But  we  must  be 
permitted  to  express  decided  doubts — the  analogy  of  the 
personal  experiences  of  the  individual  Christian  equally  forbids 
the  supposition  in  question,  as  do  the  contents  of  the  saving 
promises  of  the  word  of  God — as  to  its  being  only  progress  in 
the  knowledge  and  experience  of  the  ignominia  crticis,  without 
any  consolatory  and  refreshing  enrichment  in  such  experiences 
as  the  gloria  crucis  affords,  which  awaits  the  Church  in  the 

'  See  the  author's  review  of  Ritschl's  work,  in  the  Beweis  des  Glaubens,  1875, 
S.  146  f. 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  36 1 

more  immediate  future.  The  wounds  which  the  Lord  inflicts, 
He  knows  also  how  with  heahnghand  to  bind  up  ;  He  suffers 
no  temptation  to  overtake  His  people,  without  having  made 
trial  *of  their  strength  to  endure  it.  Yea,  He  turns  their 
sufferings  immediately  into  Divine  glory  ;  He  transforms  them, 
in  proportion  as  He  stirs  them  in  the  fining-pot  of  affliction, 
from  glory  unto  glory.  "  There  yet  remaineth  a  rest  to  the 
people  of  God  : "  in  this  consolatory  promise  of  that  apostolic 
man  who  knows  how  to  testify  in  a  manner  glorious  beyond 
that  of  others  concerning  the  fruits  of  the  atoning  sacrifice 
of  the  new  covenant,  presented  upon  the  altar  of  the  cross, 
is  contained  a  still  more  special  consolatory  promise.  After 
the  bitter  side  of  the  communion  of  suffering  has  been  tasted 
by  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  sweet,  the  preciously  refreshing 
side  of  this  same  communion  will  be  brought  to  her  for  her 
full  experience.  After  sounding  the  depths  of  the  cross  of 
suffering,  the  bright  rays  of  the  cross  of  glory  will  be  contem- 
plated by  her  anew,  in  fairer  lustre  than  before. 

The  cross  of  Christ  is  no  object  exclusively  of  the  historic 
past.  It  has  still  a  future  upon  earth,  a  great  and  glorious 
future,  even  though  it  may  not  appear  great  in  the  outward 
sense  of  those  for  whom  that  which  is  great  and  glorious 
in  the  kingdom  of  God  is  in  any  case  something  strange 
and  incomprehensible.  We  are  not  thinking  immediately 
of  the  last,  the  eschatological  future,  which  is  predicted  in  the 
word  of  the  Lord  (Matt.  xxiv.  30)  of  the  appearing  of  the 
sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven.  Something  of  the  nature 
of  a  far-beaming  revelation  of  the  might  and  majesty  of  the 
cross  of  Christ,  the  symbol  of  redemption,  the  sacred  altar 
of  sacrifice  of  the  new  covenant,  irradiating  as  a  lightning 
flash  the  whole  surface  of  the  globe,  seems  in  reality  to  be 
here  predicted.  That  mysterious  word  of  prophecy  is  in 
much  too  close  contact — especially  in  that  which  is  fore- 
announced  as  the  terrifying  effect  of  the  majestic  heavenly 
appearing,  in  the  "  mourning  of  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  " — 
with  the  twofold  Johannine  proclamation  of  that  which  will 
one  day  take  place,  when  they  shall  look  "upon  Him  v/hom 


362  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

they  have  pierced"  (Rev.  i.  7;  John  xix.  37;  comp.  Zech.  xii. 
10),  for  the  reference  in  "  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  "  to  the 
cross,  or  at  least  to  the  passion  of  Jesus,  His  humiliation  in 
shame,  agony,  and  death,  to  be  lightly  overlooked.  Nor  is 
there  anything  at  all  strange  in  the  circumstance  that,  accord- 
ing to  this  supposition,  Christ  makes  mention  aforehand  of  His 
cross,  while  He  has  not  yet  suffered  crucifixion  ;  for  in  those 
exhortations  also,  so  abundantly  attested  and  probably  several 
times  uttered,  namely,  to  the  taking  up  of  His  cross  (Matt.  x. 
38,  xvi.  24,  and  parallel  places),  the  Lord  spoke  of  this  as  the 
instrument  of  His  death,  already  long  before  that  death  itself. 
Nevertheless  the  indefinite  character  of  the  expression,  "  Sign 
of  the  Son  of  Man,"  leaves  it  uncertain  whether  we  have  to 
think  of  a  cross  in  the  proper  and  externally  visible  sense, 
such  as  a  great  brilliant  cross  of  cloud,  or  a  cross  of  streaming 
radiance,  far  transcending  in  glory  and  awe-inspiring  majesty 
that  once  beheld  by  Constantine.  The  interpretation  which 
specially  commends  itself  to  the  majority  of  the  Fathers, 
as  also  to  a  considerable  number  of  modern  theologians — 
that  which  sees  in  this  passage  a  reference  to  such  majestic 
cosmico-symbolic  manifestation  of  the  instrument  of  salvation 
— has  certainly  more  in  its  favour  than  the  (Judaising)  inter- 
pretation of  the  expression  as  having  reference  to  some  event 
of  history  which  has  already  taken  place,  e.g.,  to  the  human 
form  which  as  is  alleged  appeared  to  Titus  in  the  Most  Holy 
Place  on  the  night  of  the  destruction  of  the  Temple.  Yet,  on 
account  of  the  manifold  significance  of  the  term  "  Sign  of  the 
Son  of  Man,"  it  seems  to  us  the  wiser  course  not  to  look  for  a 
direct  appearing  and  manifestation  of  the  cross,  but  to  regard 
as  the  sense  and  import  of  this  v/ord  of  prophecy  some 
assurance,  amounting  to  immediate  recognition  (given  as  in  a 
lightning-flash  to  all  men  upon  earth),  of  the  truth  of  the 
revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  the  Crucified — thus  some  kind 
of  Divine  confirmation  of  the  via  crncis  as  the  only  way  of 
salvation,  of  a  nature  to  inspire  with  dread  and  trembling  the 
unbelieving  world.^ 

'  Further  in  the  Appendix  IX. :  The  Sign  of  the  Returning  Son  of  Man, 
Matt.  xxiv.  30. 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  363 

Not  this  eschatological  event  heralding  the  last  times  have 
WQ  now  before  our  mind,  when  we  assert  for  the  cross  in 
the  further  development  of  the  Church  a  great  future.  The 
cross,  as  a  symbol  alike  of  the  outward  confession  as  of  the 
lowly  following  of  Jesus,  as  the  infinitely  profound  and 
pregnant  symbol  of  the  religion  of  truth,  the  significant 
central  position  of  which  in  the  totality  of  the  Divine  plan  of 
salvation  is  attested  by  a  typico-prophetic  previous  and  pre- 
paratory history  of  an  eminently  providential  character,  and 
of  undeniably  teleologic  design,^  this  cross  has  still  within 
the  earthly  historic  course  of  the  world  a  highly  important 
mission  to  fulfil,  in  which  the  synthesis  of  those  two  one-sided 
exertions  of  its  influence  in  the  past  history  of  the  Church — 
that  preponderantly  directed  only  outwards,  during  the  period 
from  Constantine  to  Luther,  and  that  preponderantly  only  of 
an  inward  nature,  from  Luther  to  the  present  time — will  be 
represented  and  realised.  It  is  mainly  three  domains  of  the 
life  of  the  Christian  Church  in  which  the  idea  of  the  cross, 
on  the  one  hand  as  the  evangelically  purified  conception,  and 
on  the  other  as  the  (in  the  genuine  and  nobler  sense)  catholic 
conception,  completed  and  enriched,  thus  the  idea  of  the 
cross  restored  to  its  early- Christian  and  apostolic  fulness,  will 
have  to  develop  its  fruit-bearing  activity.  First  of  all  and  in 
a  special  sense  it  will  have  to  prove,  far  more  abundantly  and 
powerfully  than  heretofore,  its  sanctifying  efficacy  in  its 
operation  upon  and  in  the  religious-ethical  life  of  Christians 
as  individuals.  The  extraordinary  conflicts,  toils,  and  perils 
with  which  in  the  present  time  the  Christian  standing  appears 
to  be  beset  and  harassed  on  every  side  ;  the  abundance  of  the 
questions,  of  a  theoretical  and  a  practical  nature,  now  await- 
ing their  solution  at  the  hands  of  those  engaged  in  the  service 
of  the  Lord  and  of  His  Church  ;  the  character  of  a  restless- 
ness and  business  distraction,  wrought  up  to  the  highest  pitch 
of  tension,  attaching  in  consequence  thereof  in  increasing 
degree  to  life  even   in    Christian    circles,    a    "  life   at   high- 

'  See  above,  ch.  i.,  A  and  B,  especially  the  concluding  observations,  pp.  29  i. 
and  69  ft. 


364  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

pressure,"  as  it  has  been  fittingly  termed  ; — all  this  renders 
necessary  a  far  more  vigorous  exertion  of  the  endeavour 
after  sanctification  and  the  proof  of  a  living  faith,  than  the 
bearing  of  the  representatives  of  evangelical  churchliness  has 
hitherto  as  a  rule  displayed.  In  the  midst  of  the  perplexing 
many-sidedness  of  the  Martha  services,  such  as  the  extraordi- 
narily active  life  of  the  present  imperatively  demands  of  the 
Church,  the  devout  and  contemplative  mind  of  a  Mary, 
directed  to  the  one  thing  needful,  must  not  be  denied  ;  rather 
must  this  grow  and  wax  strong  precisely  in  the  same  degree 
as  the  other/  Extraordinary  times  call  for  extraordinary 
measures.  We  do  not  propose  the  adoption  of  measures  akin 
to  those  of  a  hyper-ascetic  superstitious  staurolatrous  Ultra- 
montanism,  nor  of  measures  after  the  pattern  of  those  em- 
ployed in  the  American  or  British  Methodistic  agitations  and 
revivals.  So  far  as  immediately  concerns  the  want  of  life 
and  salvation  in  the  German  Protestant  community,  we  desire 
only  an  energetic  drawing  of  the  practical  consequences 
contained  in  any  case  in  the  principle  of  justification  of  our 
Church  ;  a  reviving  and  fruitful  re-vindication  of  authority  for 
the  reformational  article  of  the  cross  of  the  Lord  in  its  deep 
significance  for  our  whole  character,  as  living,  loving,  and 
suffering  in  the  service  of  Christ ;  increasingly  abundant  and 
more  fruit-bearing  experiences  in  the  sphere  of  that  myste- 
riously bliss-giving  attractive  power  which  flows  from  the 
Crucified  One,  this  real  treasure  of  our  Lutheran  mystic- 
ascetic  literature,  the  precious  pearl  which  glistens  forth  to  us 
in  G.  Arnold's  love-inspired  verses : 

Liebe,  zeuch  was  in  dein  Sterben, 
Lass  uns  mit  gekreuzigt  sein, 
"Was  dein  Reich  nicht  kann  ererben  ; 
Fiihr  ins  Paradies  uns  ein  !  - 

Of  the  helpful  impulses  which  are  afforded  us  in  relation  to 

'  Comp.  Edgar,  77;^?  Philosophy  of  the  Cross,  p.  269  f.  ;  and  in  general  the  whole 
instructive  chapter,  "The  Cross  the  Instrument  of  Sanctification,"  p.  256  ff. 
"  O  Love,  embrace  us  in  Thy  dying 
Let  all  in  us  be  crucified 
That  cannot  in  Thy  kingdom  shine  ; 
Lead  us  into  Paradise. 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  365 

this  endeavour  on  the  part  of  foreign  representatives  of  living 
Christianity,  we  both  may  and  ought  most  thankfully  to 
avail  ourselves,  though  never  to  the  neglect  of  the  Christian 
duty  of  earnest  trying  of  the  spirits  and  the  exercise  of  a 
safer  judgment  thereupon  in  accordance  with  God's  word. 

The  second  domain  of  the  Church's  life  upon  which  we 
hope  to  behold  anew,  in  the  nearer  or  more  distant  future, 
great  triumphs  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  is  that  of  MISSIONS, 
Home  as  well  as  Foreign.  We  cannot  regard  the  successes  of 
the  cross  as  a  missionary  power  as  being  as  yet  by  any  means 
exhausted  ;  and  for  this  reason,  that  its  successes  in  the  sphere 
of  Christian  personal  sanctification,  the  indispensable  founda- 
tion and  pre-requisite  for  a  fruit-bearing  and  sound  missionary 
activity  among  unbelievers  at  home  as  well  as  in  the  heathen 
world,  are  as  yet  far  from  exhausted,  and  that  a  glance  at  the 
present  condition  of  the  Christian  and  extra-Christian  nations 
suffices  to  show  that  the  work  of  the  chosen  witnesses,  upon 
whom  is  incumbent  the  proclamation  of  the  grace  of  the  Cru- 
cified and  Risen  One  before  every  creature,  is  as  yet  far  from 
having  attained  its  close.  Any  other  kind  of  diffusion  of  the 
kingdom  of  grace,  within  and  without,  than  that  which  takes 
place  beneath  the  cross,  and  through  the  power  of  the  cross, 
appears  however  for  us  inconceivable.  Rationalism,  even  in 
its  most  ethically  purified  and  idealised  form,  as  this  is  repre- 
sented by  the  modern  speculative  school  of  Germany,  has  no 
undertakings  worth  mentioning,  not  to  speak  of  any  kind  of 
success  in  the  field  of  missions,  which  it  can  point  to.  And 
this  simply  because  it  knows  not  the  full  power  of  the  cross  ; 
because  it  either  has  not  experienced,  or  has  experienced 
only  in  the  feeblest  measure,  the  heart-transforming,  life- 
renewing,  sinner-converting  efficacy  of  that  grace  proceeding 
from  the  Crucified  and  Risen  One,  that  wondrous  effect  of 
the  heavenly  fire  which  melts  away  even  the  most  obdurate 
pride,  that  "alchemy  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  ^  as  a  recent  writer 
upon  our  subject  ventures  to  call  it ;  and  for  this  very  reason 
experiences  nothing  of  the  impulse  to  testify  to  others  the 

'  Mackay,  Glory  of  tJie  Cross,  p.  283. 


366  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

blessedness  of  this  experience.  Only  the  circles  which  have 
placed  themselves  wholly,  with  their  confessing,  teaching,  and 
life,  under  the  cross  ;  only  the  much-despised  and  contemned 
pietistic  orthodox  circles,  covered  over  and  over  again  with 
Langhansian  ^  venom  and  scorn,  only  the  mission  circles 
in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term  are  wanting  neither  in  the 
missionary  spirit  and  zeal,  nor  in  missionary  success.  Without 
their  activity,  ever  quickened  and  kindled  anew  at  the  feet  of 
the  Crucified,  the  work  of  extending  the  kingdom  of  God 
would  long  ago  have  come  to  a  standstill.  Let  any  one 
criticise  and  censure  the  method  pursued  by  them  as  he 
will ;  let  him  call  in  question  their  enthusiasm  as  unsound,  or 
at  least  ill-guided ;  let  him  agree  with  Schleiermacher's 
witty  remark  on  the  British  friends  of  missions,  who  "made 
use  even  of  the  wood  of  the  cross  as  masts  for  their  gain- 
seeking  voyage  of  life,"  or  join  in  any  similar  bonmots ;  the 
fact  remains  none  the  less,  that  the  power  and  self-sacrificing 
courage  for  works  of  rescuing  love  to  sinners,  as  this  is  required 
for  the  great  mission  problem  at  home  and  abroad,  will  be 
found  only  among  those  who  go  forth  as  lowly  bearers  of  the 
cross  of  Christ,  who  by  intimate  communion  in  prayer  with 
Him  know  how  to  draw  forth  the  power  of  that  faith  which 
"never  permits  us  to  sit  at  home  in  pleasant  and  easy  repose, 
and  see  the  champions  of  the  cross,  consecrated  by  the  great 
sacrifice  of  the  Lord,  striving  unto  blood  with  the  enemy  for 
the  victory."'^  It  is  moreover  objective  views  and  considera- 
tions, founded  on  the  nature  of  the  aims  of  Christian  mission- 
ary labour,  as  also  on  the  character  of  the  heathen  whose 
conversion  is  sought,  which  have  long  convinced,  not  only  the 
theologians  of  the  Church,  but  sufficiently  large-hearted  and 
enlightened  statesmen  too,  of  the  adaptation  and  worth  of  the 
missionary  work  consecrated   by  the  cross,  and  of  this  only. 

'  [Langhans,  a  radical  theologian  of  Switzerland,  whose  name  is  associated  on 
the  Continent  with  a  bitter  hatred  of  the  mission  work,  which  he  seeks  to  cover 
with  ridicule  and  scorn.  The  reader  may  be  able  to  find  a  parallel  case  in  our 
own  land.] 

■•*  The  Perfect  Man  ;  or,  Jesus  an  Example  of  Godly  Life.  By  the  Rev.  Harry 
Jones.     London,  1870. 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  367 

A  British  Parliamentary  Commission  issued  in  1856,  of  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  one  of  the  members,  came  to  the  conclusion 
— as  the  result  of  the  most  thorough  investigations,  based  upon 
evidence  derived  from  all  mission-fields  far  and  near — that 
not  the  application  of  external  means  of  civilisation,  but  the 
preaching  of  Christ  crucified,  is  the  true  agent  for  raising  bar- 
barous tribes  to  a  higher  stage  of  culture,  and  even  "that 
by  the  preaching  of  the  word  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  by 
this  only,  do  the  heathen  obtain  a  true  susceptibility  for  the 
outward  ennobling  of  life."  ^  The  Christian  circles  of  England 
and  America  might  teach  much  that  is  salutary,  in  this 
domain  too,  to  us  Germans,  especially  our  statesmen  and 
Church  politicians,  if  we  would  only  learn  !  In  the  often  too 
mechanical  employment  of  measures  which  have  been  adopted 
with  success  in  one  case  or  other,  and  then  have  come  to  be 
regarded  as  infallible,  errors  may  no  doubt  frequently  have 
been  committed  among  them  also.  The  excessive  expec- 
tations too  which  have  been  cherished  in  connection  with 
the  use  of  these  means,  the  occasional  falling  into  a  fanciful 
and  uncritically  confident  expectation  or  intoxication  with 
millennial  prospects  of  the  future,  may  likewise  be  censurable.^ 
In  its  totality,  however,  that  which  is  accomplished  on  this 
side  in  the  form  of  sacrifice  made  for  the  cause  of  the  Cru- 
cified retains  its  full  claim  to  our  admiration  ;  and  the  only 
true  efifect  we  German  evangelical  Christians  can  experience 
in  presence  of  these  magnanimous  deeds  of  our  British 
and  American  kinsmen  {i.e.,  of  kindred  race :  Stammes- 
verwandten),  stands  written  in  Heb.  x.  24 :  7rapo^ucrfi6<; 
ayd7rr]<;  koI  Kokwv  epjcov. 

A  third  and  last  series  of  salutary  results  we  look  for  from 
the  future  more  earnest  cultivation  and  more  abundant  de- 

*  "Missions,  their  Place  and  Work  in  the  Present  Day,"  from  the  Danish  01 
H.  Kalkar.     (Allgem.  lit.  Anzeiger f.  das  evang.  Deutschland,  1873,  S.  183.) 

^  As  instances,  comp.  Mackay,  as  before  (p.  281  ff.),  as  especially  Edgar,  p.  340  : 
"Under  the  cross  the  hopes  of  the  believer  bloom  into  tropical  luxuriance;  we 
feel  there  that  we  cannot  expect  too  much.  "We  feel  that  the  perseverance  of  the 
saints  is  only  a  necessary  corollary  to  the  crucifixion.  We  feel  there  that  all 
doubt  regarding  our  salvation  is  presumption  and  impertinence,"  etc. 


368  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

velopment  of  the  idea  of  the  cross  in  the  direction  of  the 
restoring  an  increasingly  close,  more  true,  and  solid  com- 
munion between  the  members  of  different  branches  and 
divisions  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  IRENIC,  the  peace- 
making activity  of  the  cross,  is  not  the  least  important, 
even  in  our  days.  This  should  be  earnestly  and  with  one 
accord  sought,  above  other  tokens  of  the  favour  of  our 
heavenly  High  Priest,  by  all  His  confessors ;  especially  at  a 
time  in  which  melancholy  denominational  strife  within  co- 
operates with  the  assaults  of  enemies  without  for  the  ruin 
of  the  Church,  and  a  deplorable  splitting  up  into  parties, 
of  those  who  by  the  manifold  community  of  their  interests 
are  called  to  be  one,  furnishes  only  too  powerful  arguments 
in  favour  of  the  apparent  truth  of  the  assertion  made  by  one 
of  their  own  more  distinguished  prophets,  that  Christianity 
is  undergoing  a  process  of  self-dissolution.  The  cross 
of  Christ  alone  will  be  able  to  silence  this  lamentation, 
to  close  these  smarting  wounds.  We  do  not  favour  any 
essentially  untruthful  endeavours  after  peace,  based  upon 
merely  superficial  overlooking  of  differences,  in  place  of  a 
thorough  reconciliation  of  opposites.  We  are  as  far  from 
advocating  misty  compromises  made  on  the  part  of  faith 
with  unbelief,  as  we  are  from  pleading  in  favour  of  absorptive 
projects  of  union,  which  would  fail  to  render  justice  to  the 
good  claim  of  historic  confessions,  or  of  rabid  schemes  of 
a  comprehensive  national  Church.  For  the  evangelical 
Church  of  Germany  in  particular  we  desire  and  call  for  the 
endeavour  after  such  ordering  of  its  internal  relations,  as 
shall  assure  the  maintenance  in  its  integrity  of  the  funda- 
mental form  of  its  ecclesiastical  order  and  type  of  doctrine, 
as  shall  not  consign  to  the  grave  the  Lutheran  character 
of  the  German  Church  of  the  Reformation,  but  preserve, 
strengthen,  and  aid  it  to  the  full  development  of  its  peculiar 
gifts  and  distinctions.  We  do  not  make  this  demand  out  of 
confessional  obstinacy,  or  by  virtue  of  an  unjustifiable  "esti- 
mate of  one's  own  wares ; "  but  only  out  of  love  to  real 
ecclesiastical  peace,  the  prime  condition  of  which  is,  not  sup- 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH.  369 

pression ,  but  maintenance  and  loving  solicitude  for  the  historic 
forms  the  life  of  the  Church  has  assumed,  especially  when 
these  forms  have  been  approved  and  attested  by  a  particularly 
abundant  charismatic  fulness  of  its  powers  and  gifts.  In 
the  cross,  ir  the  common  self-surrender  to  the  crucified  and 
divinely  exs  Ited  Son  of  God,  was  the  true  union  of  Christians 
of  every  confession  long  ago  guaranteed  and  sealed.^  It  is 
therefore  only  necessary  that  time  and  space  be  allowed  them 
for  the  increasingly  pure  conception  and  more  powerful 
experience  of  the  "salutary  mystery  of  the  holy  cross," 
which  forms  their  most  precious  patrimony,  in  order  that 
the  outward  presentation  of  their  communion  of  life  may 
make  unimpeded  progress  to  a  blissful  joy  of  all  faithful 
confessors  of  the  truth. 

It  would  assuredly  be  sad,  and  unhappily  only  too  just  a 
ground  of  triumph  for  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  if  the  most 
pregnant  symbol  of  the  spiritual  union  and  communion  of  all 
Churches  should,  through  the  combined  operation  of  unbeliev- 
ing and  hypocritically  pretending  or  superstitious  powers  of 
the  age,  be  prevented  from  exerting  its  pre-eminently  pacific 
effect  in  presence  of  the  still  existing  divisions  within  the 
Church.  What  if,  when  there  has  long  remained  no  single 
doubt  more  as  to  the  might  of  the  word  of  the  cross  to  resolve 
into  blissful  harmony  even  the  strongest  contrasts,  among 
the  representatives  of  a  divinely  enlightened  Christian  view 
of  the  world,  whether  theologians  or  philosophers  ;  when  in 
particular  the  alone  effectual  remedy,  and  the  alone  true 
reconciliation  and  peace-making  for  the  sickly  over-tension 
of  one-sided  tendencies  of  the  age  to  optimism  or  pessimism, 
in  the  ecclesiastical  or  extra-ecclesiastical  domain,  has  been 
recognised    in    the   cross   of    Christ,"   solely   and    alone   the 

'  Luthardt,  Apologet.  Vortriige,  ii.,  S.  121  :  "There  is  one  place  in  which  all 
Christians  find  themselves  in  spirit  one— that  is  THE  CROSS.  In  this  is  to  be 
found  the  spiritual  unity  of  the  Church."  [Comp.  the  sentiment  expressed  in  the 
profoundly  spiritual  hymn  of  Hugh  S  to  well :  "From  every  stormy  wind  that 
blows,"  etcl 

^  See  on  this  point  Luthardt,   as  before,  iii.,    176,  195;  Kahnis,   Luth.  Dogni. 
recast  1874).  i.  466  f  ;  Kuyper,  Der  Modcrnismns,  edited  (in  the  German  trans.;  by 

24 


370 


THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 


inflexible  obduracy  of  cliurchly-confessional  (denominational) 
parties  should  offer  an  insuperable  resistance  to  the  recon- 
cihng  power  which  flows  forth  from  this  salutary  mystery! 
We  do  not  regard  this  as  possible.  We  have  confidence  in 
the  inner  power  and  truth  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Cracified  One 
to  assert  victoriously  its  peace-making,  healing,  and  reconciling 
power  on  this  side  also.  It  will  do  this  so  soon/  and  in  the 
same  proportion,  as  all  churches  have  become  in/perfect  truth 
Cross-churches,  churches  under  the  cross,  coffimunions  con- 
fessing and  cherishing  that  genuine  tJicologia  crticis  in  which 
there  is  no  guile,  which  calls  the  good,  good,  and  the  bad, 
bad,  spite  of  all  dissembling  arts  of  a  trutb-corrupting  theologia 
glories.  The  power  of  the  blood  of  the  Crucified,  which 
makes  peace  in  heaven  as  upon  earth  (Col.  i.  20),  cannot  be 
always  resisted,  even  by  the  self-seeking  separative  tendencies 
and  party  contentions  within  the  bosom  of  the  Church 
Militant.  As  the  last  enemy,  death  will  be  destroyed  :  at 
the  time  when  this  takes  place,  all  other  enemies  will  have 
been  made  the  footstool  for  the  Lord's  feet  (i  Cor.  xv.  25). 
When  at  length  the  sacred  blood  of  the  Crucified  flows  in 
unhindered  power  and  freshness  through  the  life-veins  of 
all  the  members  of  His  body,  through  all  the  branches  of 
the  mighty  far-shadowing  tree  of  Christendom,  the  crown 
of  this  tree  will  put  forth  in  glorious  unity  and  wondrously 
harmonious  splendour  its  leaves,  blossoms,  and  fruit.  And 
though  the  stem  should  be  greatly  weather-beaten  and 
almost  withered,  a  fresh  top  without  corrupt  or  faded  branches 
will  flourish  in  the  splendour  of  Christ,  the  eternal  Sun  of 
Righteousness,  as  in  the  days  when  He  first  visited  us,  the 
gracious  dayspring  from  on  high.  That  remains  not  less 
true  for  the  whole  Christian  Church  than  for  each  of  its 
members,  which  one  most  richly  endowed  with  grace  of  the 
psalm-singers  of  the  New  Covenant  uttered  beneath  the 
cross : 

Riggenbach,  S.  33  f.  ;  comp.  J.  H.  Fichte,  Die  theistische  Weltansicht,  1873  ;  and 
the  programme  of  the  Catholic  philosopher  Katzenberger  of  Bamberg,  Dasapriori- 
slische  iind  das  ideale  Moment  in  der  IVissenschaJ't,  1874,  S.  42. 


IN    THE    PRESENT    AND    FUTURE    CHURCH. 


171 


Das  weiss  ich  furwahr,  und  lasse 
Mir's  nicht  aus  dem  Sinne  gehen  ; 
Christenkreuz  hat  seine  Maasse 
Und  muss  endlich  stille  stehn. 
Wenn  der  Winter  ausgeschneiet, 
Tritt  der  schone  Sommer  ein  ; 
Also  wird  auch  nach  der  Pein, 
Wer's  erwarten  kann,  erfreuet. 
Alles  Ding  wahrt  seine  Zeit 
Gottes  Lieb  in  Ewigkeit. 


This  I  know  indeed,  and  never 
Suffer  it  to  leave  my  mind, 
That  our  cross  must  have  its  measure 
And  at  last  an  end  must  find. 
Winter  snows  must  be  expended, 
Summer  then  comes  fair  and  bright ; 
Thus  shall  suffering  be  ended, 
Who  can  wait  shall  see  the  light. 
Things  of  earth  their  time  endure, 
But  God's  love  is  evermore. 


Call  it  Chiliasm  if  you  will,  the  transferring  of  the  con- 
solatory hope  of  the  individual  Christian,  expressing  itself 
in  this  confession,  to  the  domain  of  the  whole  Christian 
Church.  There  is  besides  the  fanatical  also  a  well-founded 
Chiliasm,  based  upon  the  promises  of  God's  word,  and  indis- 
pensable for  the  thriving  of  the  life  of  the  individual  Chris- 
tian, as  for  that  of  the  Church  at  large.  The  expectation  of 
such  deliverance,  consolation,  and  glorification  of  the  suffering 
Church,  as  leaves  her  still  a  Church  standing  beneath  the 
cross,  falls  under  the  ban  of  no  orthodoxy  as  measured  by 
the  ancient  standards.  The  profounder  self-absorption  in 
that  mystery  of  godliness  which  is  without  controversy  great, 
and  into  which  the  angels  desire  to  look,  will  ever  afresh 
call  forth  and  quicken  again  the  consolation  of  the  Church's 
witnesses  of  the  truth  in  all  ages,  the  consolation  in  the  con- 
fession of  which  a  Flacius  and  a  Spener  join  hands :  THE 
HOPE   OF   BETTER   TIMES. 


APPENDIX, 


On  the  purely  Ornamental  Use  of  the  Symbol  of  the  Cross 
ON  pre-Christian  Monuments. 

(Comp.  p.  17  f.) 

THE  majority  of  cruciform  figures  to  be  observed  upon  the 
monuments  of  pre-Christian  and  extra-Christian  art  are 
of  reUgious  symbolic  import.  Only  of  rare  occurrence,  and  com- 
paratively recent  origin,  or  of  doubtful  character,  are  those  cross- 
symbols  presenting  themselves  upon  ancient  art  implements  or  in- 
scriptions, to  which  notoriously  no  reference  to  religious  conceptions 
or  customs  attaches,  but  which,  like  the  hieroglyphs  already  alluded 
to  on  page  4,  are  characters  of  only  accidentally  cruciform  type,  or 
as  adornments  of  art-works  or  implements  bear  only  a  decorative 
significance,  and  appear  employed,  whether  in  unthinking  imitation 
of  certain  actual  religiously  significant  cross-symbols,  or  in  a  purely 
arbitrary  manner,  as  moments  of  artistic  presentation. 

On  some  of  the  latter  symbols  we  have  already  treated  in  the 

text.     Thus   on  the  figure   — — ,   which,   in  connection  with   stars 

or  with  a  half-moon,  appears  upon  ancient  Gallic  or  ancient  Spanish 
coins — e.g.,  upon  a  coin  of  the  ancient  Iberian  city  Asido,  and  here 
possibly  is   without   religious   import  (see  p.    19);    in   like    manner 

(p.   18)    on    the    sign    V;^,  upon  a  silver  vase  of  Caere:  hardly  a 

religious  symbol,  but  probably — since  it  is  depicted  on  the  hind- 
quarter  of  a  horse — a  koppa,  O,  developed  from  motives  of  deco- 
ration into  the  figure  of  a  circle  or  mirror,  with  a  cruciform  handle 
(Venus'  looking-glass) ;  or  perhaps  also  a  combination  of  the  signs 

O  and  4"  (  f-f^  )'  of  which  the  latter,  the  cross-shaped  Phoe- 
nician Tau,.  is  sometimes  found  inscribed  upon  the  hind-quarters  of 


374  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

horses  upon  ancient  pictorial  representations  {see  Raoul  Rochette,  in 
the  frequently  cited  dissertation  De  la  croix  anse'e,  etc.,  Afem.  de 
I' Acad,  des  Sciences,  xvi.  2,  p.  320 ;  as  well  as  the  illustration,  pi.  i., 
No.  32);  as  too  the  ancient  Orientals  were  wont  to  bum  upon  their 
camels  (on  the  neck  or  hind-quarter),  and  equally  so  upon  their 
slaves,  the  cruciform  Tau  symbol  (according  to  a  statement  of  the 
Arabic  lexicographer  Firuzabad,  which  is  followed  by  Freytag  in 
his  Arab.-Lat.  lexicon,  and  Gesen.  Lexic.  ma7i.  Hebr.,  sub  voc.  "1^1  ; 
comp.  Rochette,  I.e.,  p.  324).     The  religious  import  of  these  signs, 

— 1-'     or     V^,    supposing    such    import    to    have    been 

originally  present,  appears,  at  any  rate  in  the  later  period  to  which  the 
representations  and  accounts  in  question  belong,  to  have  been  no 
longer  preserved  in  tradition,  and  the  symbols  themselves  thus  to 
have  become  arabesques  maintained  without  regard  to  their  signifi- 
cation.    Thus  also  probably  the  signs   fl^,    ^S,         ,    Mi,  etc., 

frequently  occurring  upon  ancient  Italic  (Etruscan  or  prse-Etruscan) 
vases  ;  occasionally  also  upon  buckles,  pommels  of  daggers,  and  other 
ancient  art  products,  brought  to  light  in  the  central  European  fields 
of  research. A— Yet  more  certainly  do  the  cruciform  figures  of  the 
tattooing  practised  by  many  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders  fall  entirely 
without  the  circle  of  religious  symbols.  The  purely  decorative 
character  of  these  marks  cannot  well  be  doubted ;  although  to  the 
custom  of  tattooing,  as  to  all  /wVwglyphics  in  general,  a  religious  sig- 
nificance primarily  attached.     Comp.  below,  p.  376. 

To  some  remarkable  cases  of  the  merely  ornamental  employment 
of  the  cross  upon  pre-Christian  monuments  of  Rome,  of  the  last 
century  of  the  Republic  and  the  beginning  of  the  Imperial  Age, 
attention  has  been  drawn  by  the  renowned  Roman  archaeologist  De 
Rossi,  as  also  on  the  foundation  of  De  Rossi's  researches  by  the 
French  writer  Edmond  le  Blant.  According  to  the  Iscrizioni 
doliari  of  Marini,  preserved  in  MS.  in  the  library  of  the  Vatican — a 
work,  apart  from  the  translation  of  his  preface,  printed  in  torn.  vii. 
of  Ang.  Mai's  Scriptorum  veterum  nova  coUectio,  as  yet  unpublished — 
there  are  found,  in  the  midst  of  a  considerable  number  of  early 
Christian  inscriptions  with  cruciform  symbols,  monograms  of  Christ, 
etc.,  also  some  manifestly  heathen  inscriptions,  which  likewise  present 
under  various  forms  the  symbol  of  the  cross.     Thus  there  is  found 

'  Comp.  p.  18. 


APPENDIX.  375 

upon  a  brick,  taken  from  the  catacomb  of  St.  Hermes  (in  cruciform 
arrangement  of  the  letters,  which  appear  to  have  been  imprinted  with 
a  seal) : 

i-Jh     fig   PLOTINAE    AVG     »-|-» 

Marini  long  ago  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  pre-Christian  character  of 
the  ornamental  cross  symbol  which  stands  at  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  these  words ;  and  De  Rossi  remarks,  in  confirmation  of  this 
view,  "  In  truth,  in  order  to  recognise  in  these  and  similar  characters, 
which  often  occur  in  ancient  inscriptions  upon  bricks,  unequivocal 
expressions  of  the  Christian  symbol  of  redemption,  one  must  descend 
to  a  much  later  age  than  that  of  the  Empress  Plotina."  That  Plotina, 
the  wife  of  Trajan  and  adoptive  mother  of  Hadrian,  to  whom  by  the 
latter  emperor  a  temple  was  consecrated  after  her  death  (Dio  Case., 
68.  5  ;  comp.  PUn.,  Faneg.,  83),  was  in  secret  a  Christian,  can  scarcely 
hardly  have  made  use   of  the   sign  -1-  as  indicative   of  her  Chris- ^ 

Q)e  assumed.  Yet  even  had  she  been  so,  her  contemporaries  would 
tian  profession ;  since  the  use  of  the  same  as  a  Christian  symbol 
belongs  only  to  a  considerably  later  age  (see,  e.g.,  the  seal  inscription 
of  Theoderic,  King  of  the  East  Goths  ;  also  furnished  by  De  Rossi 
and  Le  Plant  : 

»-L,     REG  DN  THEODERICO  BONO  ROME). 

Unquestionably,  even  as  the  crosses  of  this  inscription,  are  the 
names  upon  ancient  coins  and  vases,  placed  in  the  form  of  a  cross, 
pointed  out  by  Garrucci  (vid.  Revue  Archeologiqiie  1866,  i.,  p.  90  sq.), 
to  be  regarded  as  products  of  heathen  and  not  Christian  art,  and, 
on  this  very  account,  as  purely  ornamental  figures,  wanting  in  any 
deeper  symbolic  character.  Thus,  a  full  half-century  before  the 
Christian  era,  Cossutius  Maridianus,  a  master  of  the  mint  in  the 
service  of  Julius  Caesar,  inscribed  his  name  in  the  form  of  a  cross, 
in  order  as  Garrucci  supposes,  to  present  an  allusion  to  the  Juliitm 
Sidus,  the  planet  Venus,  frequently  depicted  under  the  figure  of  a 
cross.  Similar  names,  arranged  crosswise,  are  to  be  found  upon 
certain  ancient  earthen  vases,  belonging  to  an  age  scarcely  less  early 
(in  Camurrini,  Iscriziotii  di  vasi  fittili,  p.  18,  n.  33;  p.  58,  n.  361): 


SOTER  CRVSANTVS 


C/2  hJ 


ZjG  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

In  like  manner,  of  heathen  and  not  Christian  origin  appears  the 
inscription  upon  a  brick  in  the  Museum  at  Wiesbaden,  the  work  of 
a  tile-  or  brick-maker,  Sempronius  Heron,  employed  by  the  XXII. 
Legion,  which  was  stationed  in  Upper  Germany  : 

o 

LEG   XXII    P    F 

W 

The  vertically  placed  abbreviation  of  the  name  Sempronius  Eron 
intersects  the  appellation  of  the  legion  (Legio  XXII.  primigenia 
fidelis).  But  just  as  little  as  the  predicates  bestowed  upon  this 
latter  can  be  supposed  to  contain  an  allusion  to  its  Christian  faith, 
can,  as  it  seems,  the  whole  cross-wise  arrangement  of  the  letters  lay 
claim  to  any  religious  significance.  "  Ces  sigles,  pas  plus  que  le 
dauphin  sur  lequel  elles  sont  imprim^es,  ne  doivent  etre  regarde'es 
comme  des  signes  de  religion."  (Garrucci,  I.e.)  Comp.  in  general 
Le  Blant,  in  the  Rev.  ArcheoL,  1872,  p.  126  sqq. 

However  remarkable  the  instances  here  adduced  of  a  merely 
ornamental  application  of  the  symbol  of  the  cross  in  the  pre- 
Christian  art  and  epigraphies,  they  yet  greatly  recede  into  the 
background,  in  point  of  number  and  importance,  before  the  much 
more  frequent  instances  of  a  manifest  and  indisputably  religious 
character  of  cruciform  figures  and  emblems  upon  the  monuments  of 
antiquity,  as  also  of  the  heathendom  of  later  epochs.  Where  these 
figures  were  turned  to  account  for  the  embellishment  of  the  instru- 
ments of  daily  life,  e.g.,  coins,  hafts  of  swords  or  daggers,  buckles, 
etc.,  and  even  of  urns  or  vases  not  designed  for  the  cultus  of  the 
dead,  and  on  this  account  were  multiplied  in  considerable  numbers, 
as  it  were  manufactured  wholesale,  there  the  religious  significance 
originally  attached  to  them  was  early  lost  sight  of,  and  by  the  purely 
decorative  application  in  course  of  time  entirely  pushed  aside  and 
obscured.  But,  as  all  emblematic  writing  among  all  nations  origi- 
nally bore  an  hieroglyphic  or  hieratic  character  (see  Wuttke,  Die 
Efitstehung  der  Schrift,  i.,  Leipzig,  1872;  and  the  article  on  this 
work  " Tattooing," in  "Ausland,"  1873,8.  48  ff.,  72  ff.),  as  in  general 
every  product  of  art  and  all  technical  skill  was  in  its  rudimentary 
beginning  called  forth  and  directed  by  the  patriarchal  or  priestly 
labours  of  the  earliest  pathfinders  of  human  culture,  so  here  too  an 


APPENDIX.  377 

analogous  origin  to  the  class  of  symbols  under  review  cannot  be 
disputed.  Gabriel  de  Mortillet,  in  the  work  already  frequently 
cited  by  us,  "  Le  Signe  de  la  Croix  avant  le  Christianisme  "  (Paris, 
Rheinwald,  1866),  has  certainly  erred  in  entirely  leaving  out  of  account 
the  possibility  of  the  non-existence  or  the  existence  no  longer  of  reVigious 
references  in  the  numerous  signs  of  the  cross  upon  early  Italic  and 
ancient  Celtic  vases,  urns,  chests  for  the  ashes,  horn-books,  dagger 
and  sword  hafts,  coins,  etc.,  examined  and  described  by  him.  But 
when,  on  the  other  hand,  the  editor  of  the  Revue  Arch'coL,  Alexandre 
Bertrand,  in  a  notice  of  De  Mortillet's  book,  in  vol.  xiv.  of  this 
Review,  p.  447,  scouts  the  idea  of  a  religious-symbolic  significance  to 
the  pre-Christian  cross  in  general,  and  consequently  claims  for  it 
throughout,  and  invariably,  only  an  ornamental  character,  he  mani- 
festly falls  in  doing  so  into  a  no  less  culpable  extreme  of  an  opposite 
kind.  It  is  not  the  axiom  figuring  at  the  head  of  the  work  criticised 
by  him — "  Des  la  plus  haute  antiquite  la  croix  a  ^te  employee  comme 
symbole,  comme  embleme  religieux"  (De  Mortillet,  Preface,  p.  ii.) — 
which  merits  to  be  condemned  as  a  "  radically  false  idea "  (pensee 
fausse  a  priori),  "  resting  upon  no  solid  basis ;"  but  only  the  uncritical 
and  one-sided  manner  in  which  De  Mortillet  seeks  to  endow  with  a 
religious  symbolical  meaning  every  ancient  cruciform  sign  without 
exception,  and  moreover  the  mystic  confusedness  and  indefinite  chr.- 
racter  of  the  views  he  entertains  with  regard  to  the  alleged  widespread 
and  primitive  secret  cuitus  of  the  peoples  among  whom  these  signs 
are  found.  For  since  the  places  where  the  objects  marked  with 
crosses  were  discovered  are  said  in  almost  every  case  to  contain 
only  such  symbols  of  the  cross,  but  no  idols,  etc., — an  assertion, 
moreover,  wanting  in  all  solid  foundation,  and  having  a  show  of 
truth  only  in  relation  to  a  very  limited  domain  of  the  antiquities 
under  review, — De  Mortillet,  too  hastily  generalising,  will  assume  that 
the  cruciform  figures  are  primeval  emblems  of  a  purified  cuitus, 
relatively  free  from  idolatry,  and  one  thus  appearing  to  be  the  direct 
precursor  of  Christianity.  "  La  Croix  a  done  ete,  dans  la  haute 
antiquite,  bien  long-temps  avant  la  venue  de  Jesus-Christ,  I'embleme 
sacre  d'une  secte  religieuse  qui  repoussait  I'idolatrie "  (p.  174). 
Against  this  concluding  proposition  of  the  researches  of  De  Mor- 
tillet, Bertrand  should  have  directed  his  polemics,  not  against  the 
more  generally  stated  and  in  itself  unassailable  thesis  of  the  high 
antiquity  of  the  cross  as  a  religious  symbol,  from  which  De  Mortillet 
took  his  start.  Of  a  sect  for  the  rest  free  from  idolatrous  rites — nay, 
even  an  anti-idolatrous  sect  of  pious  worshippers  of  the  cross,  or 


3/8  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Staurolatrge,  which  might  be  regarded  as  a  special  forerunner  of 
Christianity — there  is  no  trace  whatever  in  the  history  of  ancient 
civihsation  and  rehgion.  The  one-sided  monumental  proof  for  the 
existence,  such  as  De  Mortillet  seeks  to  afford,  suffers,  apart  from  its 
being  formally  inadmissible,  from  serious  difificulties,  gaps,  and  objec- 
tions of  a  material  kind.  Many  even  of  the  Etruscan  monuments, 
for  instance,  on  which  De  Mortillet  specially  relies,  present  distinct 
allusions  to  the  worship  on  the  part  of  their  authors  of  various  forces 
of  nature  and  daemonic  powers ;  whilst  in  the  case  of  many  other 
monuments  of  heathendom — which,  however,  are  ignored  by  M.  de 
Mortillet,  we  know  not  whether  designedly  so — especially  those  of 
Ulterior  and  Citerior  India,  America,  etc.,  the  closest  connection 
between  their  symbolics  of  the  cross  and  well-known  forms  of  idolatry 
is  patent  upon  the  very  surface. 

The  hypothesis  of  a  merely  ornamental  application  of  the  sign  of 
the  cross,  at  certain  later  stages  of  the  development  of  heathen  civi- 
lisation and  art,  unfortunately  overlooked  by  De  Mortillet,  to  the  no 
small  prejudice  of  his  otherwise  so  meritorious  investigations,  finds  too 
an  important  support  in  the  fact  that  the  form  of  the  cross,  although 
only  finding  a  comparatively  rare  expression  in  nature  without  (see 
on  this  above  in  the  text, p.  38  fL),  is  yet  one  of  pre-eminently  aesthetic 
influence,  and  in  itself  invites  and  urges  to  artistic  reproduction. 
Thus,  even  without  the  reflection  that  the  Saviour  of  the  world  died 
thereupon,  the  cross,  as  the  energetic  opposition  to  the  simple  hori- 
zontal line,  the  in  principle  deadly  enemy  of  the  serpent  coiling  inert 
upon  the  earth,  the  noble,  severe  unification  of  the  beaming  star,  is 
one  of  the  most  powerfully  inciting  motives  to  plastic  art  activity.  (See 
above  in  the  text,  chap,  v.,  p.  180  ff.)  It  must  indeed  appear  strange  if 
human  art  production  had  never  and  nowhere  before  the  advent  of 
Christianity  into  the  world,  received  this  symbol,  so  attractive,  and 
so  naturally  presenting  itself,  into  the  number  of  its  more  favourite 
devices.  That  this  acceptance  originally  took  place,  not  without  the 
co-operation  of  religious  factors — nay,  was  principally  determined  by 
such  factors,  appears  to  us  beyond  doubt.  But  for  after-times  there 
has  certainly  been  left  here  and  there  to  profane  art-activity  an 
application  and  multiplying  of  this  symbol.  The  drawing  of  sharply 
defined  boundary  lines  between  the  earlier  religious,  and  this  later 
secular,  purely  ornamental  representation  of  cruciform  characters, 
would  naturally  form  one  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  of  archaeological 
investigation ;  if  even  we  might  assign  it  at  all  to  the  domain  of  solvable 
questions.     Precisely  this,  however,  seems  to  us — apart  from  single 


APPENDIX.  379 

cases,  where  either  the  merely  decorative  or  the  purely  cultus- 
symbolical  character  of  the  figures  in  question  is  expressed  with 
documentary  clearness — to  be  impossible.^ 


IL 

Earlier  and  later  Opinions  with  regard  to  the  Symbolic 
Meaning  of  the  Egyptian  Ansate  Cross. 

(To  pp.  3  and  37.) 

Without  in  any  way  mixing  ourselves  up  with  the  problems  of 
Egyptian  philology  or  archaeology,  for  the  solution  of  which  only 
those  specially  qualified  can  be  pronounced  competent,  we  present 
here  a  general  view  of  the  principal  of  the  numerous  conjectures  with 
regard  to  the  true  meaning  of  the  Crux  ansata,  which  have  been 
advanced  on  the  part  of  earlier  and  later  investigators. 

That  the   sign      j      is   equivalent  to   "Life,"   i.e.,  expresses   the 

linguistic  value  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  and  Coptic  anch  {a'lx) 
=  "Life,  existence"  (Champoll,  Diction.  Egyptien,  p.  329:  exister, 
vivre)  is  directly  attested  by  the  well-known  incident  in  connection 
with  the  destruction  of  the  Serapeum  under  Theodosius  I.,  and  is 
now  generally  acknowledged.      There  is  still  a  question,  however, 

'  The  bearing  on  our  subject  of  the  crosses  discovered  by  Schhemann  (Nov.  1876) 
in  the  supposed  tomb  of  Agamemnon  at  Mycense,  must  depend  greatly  on  the  age 
to  which  these  crosses  belong  ;  and  this  is  a  point  not  yet  fully  decided.  Mr.  Percy 
Gardner  says,  in  a  letter  in  The  Academy,  of  April  21,  1877,  "Dr.  Schliemann  has 
spoken  of  bone  buttons  covered  with  gold  leaf.  These  certainly  occur  in  great  quan- 
tities, and  seem  to  have  been  used  in  the  adornment  of  weapons,  as  well  as  to  form 
a  centre  to  the  crosses  of  gold  laurel  leaves  which  were  found.  These  plated  bone 
buttons  are  mostly  either  rounded  or  else  lozenge-shaped,  and  of  large  size,  some 
being  two  or  three  inches  across.  The  gold  leaf  which  covers  the  buttons  bears 
patterns  which  appear  to  be  engraved  ;  the  bone  beneath  bears  the  same  pattern 
as  the  gold  laid  over  it.  These  patterns  are  the  Svastika  or  fire-drill,  with  nails 
in  the  angles,  small  crosses,  and  interlaced  wave  or  scroll  devices.  At  first  sight 
they  have  a  strangely  modern  look,  and,  on  reflection,  this  look  is  seen  to  arise 
from  the  exact  regularity  of  the  lines  of  the  patterns,  their  neatness,  and  the  careful 
balance  of  part  against  part,"  etc.  Later,  in  a  letter  dated  Athens,  April  6,  1877, 
he  remarks  on  certain  rings  of  beaten  gold  found  in  this  tomb  :  "I  do  not  believe 
that  any  one  looking  at  them  by  themselves  would  have  imagined  them  to  belong 
to  a  nascent,  but  rather  to  a  declining  or  expiring  art.  In  merit  they  are  about  on 
a  level  with  the  Roman  coins  of  Gallienus  or  Constantine. " 


3  80  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

as  to  what  more  sensuous  and  concrete  notion  underlies  this  meta- 
physic-ideal  meaning ;  in  other  words,  what  external  sensuous  sign 

the  figure  "y-  was  originally  and  in  itself  designed  to  express. 

1.  The  earliest  attempt  at  solution  is  that  handed  down  by  Macro- 
bius,  Sat.,  i.  20,  who  takes  the  staff,  with  the  eye  or  circle  upon  it, 
to  be  an  image  of  Osiris,  or  the  sun. — To  this  our  view  developed 
above,  p.  2,  in  accord  with  Rapp  and  Zestermann,  immediately 
attaches  itself.     It  is  a  question  indeed  whether  the  said  words  of 

Macrobius  really  relate  to  the  sign  T,  and  not  rather  to  the  hiero- 
glyph ©  5  or  perhaps  the  sign  jl   "  sunlight,"  •''  brightness."   (Comp. 

Brugsch,  Hieroglyph.  Gram?n.,  S.  128,  137.) 

2.  Lipsius,  De  Cruce,  i.  8,  regards  the  sign  as  that  of  a  T  (tau) 
with  a  ring  or  handle  at  the  top,  but  confesses  that  he  does  not 
know  anything  with  certainty  as  to  the  significance  of  this  ansate 
Tau :  Certe  in  obeliscis,  qui  inde  Romam  vecti,  sculptum  sic  vidimus  : 

up,  cum  anulo  tamen  vel  ansula  superne,  nee  satis  solide  scio  ad 

quam  rem  aut  usum.  As  ''  ansate  Tau  "  do  also  many  later  writers 
designate  the  sign,  e.g.,  Munter  {Religion  der  Babylonier,  S.  98). 
Comp.  also  the  appellation  usually  bestowed  upon  it  by  the  English 
numismatist.  Sir  R.  Payne  Knight — crux  circulo  dependens.  {Num. 
vet.  in  mus.  Rich.  P.  Knight  asservat.,  p.  165,  and  frequently  elsewhere.) 

3.  As  Key,  emblem  of  revelation,  or  of  the  Divine  fertilising  power 
of  nature  opening  the  treasures  of  the  soil,  specially,  therefore,  of  the 
river  Nile  (hence  "  Key  of  the  Nile  "),  the  emblem  was  interpreted 
by  the  majority  of  archaeologists  of  last  century;  comp.  Letronne, 
Mem.  de  VAcad.  des  Inscript.,  etc.,  xvi.  2,  261.  The  purely  hypo- 
thetical character  of  this  interpretation,  which  still  finds  advocates 
in  Bellermann  {Ueber  die  Scarabden-Gemtnen,  Koln.  Progr.  1820,  i., 
S.  20  ff.),  and  Grotefend  (in  '^oii\%&x'%  Amalthea,  'is..,  S.  loi),  is  shown 
by  Wilkinson,  Mamiers  and  Customs  of  the  Ajuient  Egyptians,  iv.  341, 
who  properly  urges  the  fact  that  this  symbol  appears  most  rarely 
bestowed  on  the  Egyptian  monuments  precisely  upon  the  god  Nile 
(Hapi-mou),  whereas  we  ought  certainly  to  expect  it  would  form  his 
regular  attribute. 

4.  The  Roman  archaeologist  P.  Ungarelli  would  see  in  this  symbol 
a  one-legged  sacrificial  table  with  a  sacred  vase  upon  it ;  he  retained, 
however,  in  harmony  with  ChampoU.,  Rosellini,  etc.,  the  signification 


APPENDIX.  381 

ol  "Life."  See  his  Ifiterpretat.  obeliscorum  Urbis,  pp.  5,  6.  Hierogly- 
phica  ejusdem  (vocis)  figura  formam  exhibet  mensae  sacrae  fulcro 
innixae,  cui  vas  quoddam  religionis  indicium  superpositum  est. 
With  justice  does  R.  Rochette  {Mem.  de  I' Acad.,  I.  c,  p.  287)  reject 
this  interpretation  as  unsatisfactory  :  "Je  ne  doute  pas  qu'on  ne  puisse 
en  proposer  une,  sinon  plus  certaine,  au  moins  plus  plausible  et  plus 
heureuse." 

5.  As  a  phallic  symbol  would  already  some  one  or  two  of  the 
earlier  archaeologists  interpret  this  sign  ;  e.g.,  Jablonsky  {Fanth.,  i. 
258,  287),  Nork  {Etym.-symbol.-mythol.  Reahvorterbuch,  ii.  390,  who 
sees  in  it  the  emblem  of  Venus  barbata),  and  others  ;  comp.  also 
Petit-Radel,  Monuments  antiq.  dti  Musee  Napol.,  t.  iv.,  pi.  56,  p.  116. 
Of  more  recent  writers,  this  view  is  advocated,  among  others,  by 

Uhlemann     {Aegypt.    Alterthumskunde,    iv.    143) According 

to  the  same  authority  (iv.  209),  our  (planetary)  sign  for  Venus  is  an 
hieroglyphic  figure,  which  even  among  the  ancient  Egyptians  syllaba- 
rically  expressed  the  goddess  Anuke  (Venus),  even  as  ank  expressed 
"vita  "and  «<?/^  "potens." — Asa  circumstance  favouring  this  inter- 
pretation might  be  urged  the  fact  that  the  staff-  or  tau-formed  lower 
part  of  the  figure  occasionally  displays  a  conical  form  :  thus  upon  a 
very  ancient  fragment  of  inscriptions  from  the  fourth  pyramid  (of  the 

time  of  Mycerinos),  on  which  the  sign  has  the  form  \  ,  in  like  manner 

occasionally  upon  Phoenician  monuments,  where  it  sometimes  presents 

the  same  form,  sometimes  the  similar  form  -V-.    Comp.  on  the  whole 

subject  Rochette,  /.  c,  pp.  291,  325,  374,  with  his  illustrations  upon 
his  pi.  i.,  10,  34,  35.  This  scholar,  however  important  in  many  respects 
this  frequent  recurrence  of  the  conical  conformation  of  the  lower  half 
of  the  figure  may  appear  for  him,  is  nevertheless  far  from  sharing  the 
view  that  the  ansate  cross  is  a  phallus  symbol ;  any  more  than  he  is 

-V- 

led,  from  the  fact  that  it  sometimes  forms  the  figure         ,  to  hazard 

the  conjecture  that  it  signifies  properly  an  altar  of  sacrifice  with  the 
flame  burning  thereupon ;  cp.  /.  c,  pp.  323,  347. 

6.  A  very  artificial  and  complicated  mode  of  interpretation  is  that 
of  Felix  Lajard  (author  of  "  Recherches  sur  le  culte  de  Venus," 
etc.),  developed  in  his  learned  but  somewhat  confused  treatise. 
Observations  sur  Vorigine  et  la  signification  du  symbole  appele  la  croix 
ansee  (Paris,  1847).     According  to  his  theory,  mainly  having  respect 


382  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

to  the  Asiatic  forms  of  the  ansate  cross  (Assyrian,  Persian,  Phoenician), 
and  less  to  the  Egyptian  forms,  the  sign  is  to  be  regarded  as  an 
abbreviating  or  simpUfying  presentation  of  the  mythological  sign 
mihir,  of  frequent  occurrence  upon  Assyrian- Babylonian  and  Persian 
monuments.  Like  this  mihir-sign,  it  would  represent  the  Divine  trias 
of  the  Assyrians  and  Persians;  (i)  the  highest  Divinity  or  Eternity  ; 
(2)  Bel  or  Ormuzd ;  (3)  Astarte  or  Mithras  ;  for  it  includes  in  itself, 
in  addition  to  the  circle  the  symbol  of  eternity,  indications  also  of 
the  characteristic  attributes  of  each  of  the  two  other  Divinities.  It 
is  thus,  corresponding  to  the  character  of  this  sacred  trias  of  gods, 
a  symbol  of  Divine  renewal  and  transformation,  and  is  on  that 
account  specially  depicted  at  the  representation  of  solemn  initiations 
into  mysteries. — This  interpretation,  although  at  first  not  altogether 
unfavourably  commented  on  by  many  archaeologists,  e.g.,  by  Rochette, 
in  the  Alan.,  I.  c,  p.  381  ;  by  A.  A.  Layard,  Nineveh  and  its  Remains 
[p.  301  of  the  German  edition],  very  quickly,  on  account  particularly 
of  the  almost  unanimous  opposition  of  the  Egyptologists,  fell  into 
discredit,  and  may  now  be  regarded  as  pretty  generally  abandoned 
(although  Stockbauer,  S.  94  f  of  his  "  Kunstgesch.  des  Kreuzes,"  still 
uncritically  assents  to  it). 

7.  Different  Egyptologists,  e.g.,  Brughsch  (GrammaL,  S.  133),  assign 
the  symbol  to  the  category  of  those  hieroglyphs  which  represent 
"  Bands,  bandages,  knots,  clothing."  To  what  extent  definine  points 
of  support  for  this  view  are  to  be  obtained  from  Egyptian  sources,  is 
unknown  to  us. 


III. 

Paradise,  according  to  Earlier  and  more  Recent  Opinions. 

(Top.  44.) 

How  much  has  already  been  written  on  the  position  and  constitution 
of  Paradise !  A  complete  historic  notice  even  of  the  purely  Christian- 
theological  literature  on  this  subject  would  call  for  a  work  to  itself 
And  what  compass  such  work  might  easily  attain,  even  though  mainly 
designed  to  subserve  the  interests  only  of  the  history  of  dogmas 
and  of  bibliography,  and  less  those  of  dogmatic  or  natural  philo- 
sophic speculation,  is  seen  from  the  enormous  calibre  of  such 
monographs  of  the  two  last  centuries,  as,  e.g.,  that  of  the  Coccejan 
J,   Marck    in    Leyden    {Historia   Paradisi   illustrai^i,   Amst.    1705, 


APPENDIX.  383 

extending  to  885  quarto  pages  !),  that  of  the  vigorous  Lutheran 
apologete  Th.  Chr.  Lilienthal  ("  History  of  our  First  Parents  in  the 
state  of  Innocence,"  in  German,  Konigsberg,  1722,  Svo),  that  of  the 
learned  CathoHc  Thorn.  Malvenda  i^De  Paradiso  vohiptatis,  Rom. 
1605,  4to),  Nichol.  Abram  (De  fluviis  et  locis  paradisi,  contained  in 
the  collected  works  of  this  Jesuit :  Pharus  Vet.  Testamenti  s.  sacrarum 
qucEstio7ium  libri'KY.,  Paris,  1648,  foL),  C.  Joh.  Golinus  i^Edengi-aphia, 
s.  descriptio  Paradisi  terrestris,  Messanse,  1649,  fol.)  ;  or  the  works 
partly  of  Protestant,  partly  of  Catholic  authors,  which  Ugolino  has 
received  into  the  7th  vol.  of  his  Thesaurus  Antt.  (e.g.  John  Hopkinson, 
Descriptio  Paradisi,  1594;  Steph.  Morinus,  Dissertatio  de  Parad. 
terrestri ;  Dan.  Huetius,  Tractatus  de  situ  Parad.  terrestris ;  Joh. 
Voorst,  Diss,  de  Parad.)  Even  in  our  own  century  bulky  treatises 
have  been  composed  upon  the  subject.  Most  confusedly  has  it  been 
treated  by  Joh.  Schulthess  ("  Paradise,  the  Terrestrial  and  Super- 
terrestrial,  Historic,  Mythic,  and  Mystic,  with  a  Critical  Revision  of  the 
general  Biblical  Geography"  [in  German],  Zurich,  18 16,  Svo),  most 
learnedly  by  Bertheau  ("  The  Geographical  Views  underlying  the 
Description  of  the  Position  of  Paradise  in  Gen.  ii.  10 — 14;  a  contri- 
bution to  the  History  of  Geography  [German],  Gottingen,  1848);  most 
lucidly  and  instructively  by  Th.  Pressel  (art.  "  Paradies  "  in  Herzog's 
R.  E.,  Bd.  XX.,  S.  332 — 377). — Spite  of  the  immense  amount  of  infor- 
mation to  be  obtained  from  these  works  on  the  exceedingly  numerous 
opinions  and  theories  advanced  by  earlier  or  later  writers  upon  the 
subject,  it  may  not  be  unacceptable  to  our  readers  if  we  nevertheless 
furnish  here  some  supplementary  data.  We  aim  in  doing  so 
mainly  at  briefly  indicating  the  present  state  of  the  controversy,  as 
this  has  been  modified  during  the  most  recent  period,  under  the 
influence  of  the  ever-increasing  number  of  the  representatives  of 
natural  science  who  have  for  some  time  past  taken  part  in  the  said 
discussions. 

For  a  part  of  the  theologians  of  the  Early  Church  and  the  Middle 
Ages  the  question  as  to  the  probabls  site  of  Paradise  must  have 
appeared  altogether  an  idle  one ;  since  they  removed  it  entirely  from 
earth  and  placed  it  in  the  heavenly  world,  and,  on  the  ground  of 
2  Cor.  xii.  2 — 4,  identified  it  with  the  "  third  heaven."  In  opposition 
to  this  their  fundamental  view,  based  as  it  was  upon  an  allegoristic- 
spiritualistic  subtilising  of  the  historic-concrete  idea  of  Paradise, 
derived  from  the  writings  of  Philo,  first  introduced  by  Origen  into 
churchly  speculation,  and  later  advocated  by  x\mbrose  and  Scotus 
Erigena ;   the  greater  part  of  the   Fathers  placed   Paradise   ind-eed 


384  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

upon  this  earth,  but  in  an  absolutely  inaccessible  locality,  forming 
the  transition  to  the  other  world,  which  they  supposed  to  lie  either 
in  the  distant  East  (Theophilus  of  Antioch,  ad  Autol,  ii.  34),  or 
beyond  the  torrid  zone  in  the  south  (TertuUian,  ApoL,  c.  47),  or 
beyond  the  earth-encircling  ocean  (Basil  the  Great,  Gregory  of 
Nazianzus,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Cosmas  Indicopleustes),  or  beyond 
insuperable  mountains  (Moses  Bar-Cephas,  Tract,  de  Faradiso,  of  the 
tenth  century).  Others,  dissatisfied  with  the  indistinctness  of  this 
fantastic  mystical  theory,  distinguished  an  earthly  and  a  heavenly 
Paradise,  the  former  of  which  they  assigned  to  some  locality  on 
earth  no  longer  to  be  determined  with  certainty  ;  so  Justin  Martyr, 
Methodius,  Jerome.  While  the  schoolmen  remained  preponderantly 
inclined  to  that  mystic  mingling  of  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly 
Paradise,  the  theology  of  the  Reformation,  from  the  time  of  Luther, 
contended  with  decision  for  the  concrete-historic  and  earthly-real 
character  of  the  Biblical  Paradise,  as  admitting  the  possibiUty  of 
historic  investigation.  It  still  observes,  indeed,  in  some  of  its  repre- 
sentatives, a  half-and-half  spiritual  attitude ;  inasmuch  as  it  regards 
the  position  of  Paradise,  conceived  of  as  a  geographically  defined 
locality,  as  effaced  by  the  changes  produced  upon  the  surface  of  the 
globe  in  consequence  of  the  fall,  and  still  more  of  the  flood,  and 
therefore  undiscoverable  ;  so  Luther  {E7tarrationes  in  Genes.,  1524, 
and  freq.),  Dav.  Clericus  (Not?e  ad  Sansonis  Geographiam  Sacram,  in 
Ugolino's  Thes.  Anti.,  t.  viii.),  Gilb.  Burnet  {The  Sacred  Theory  of  the 
Earth,  London,  1681),  Hardouin  (De  Situ  Paradisi  terrestris — 0pp. 
sell.,  1709),  Hadr.  Reland  (De  situ  Parad.  terr.,  in  Dissertt.  miscelL, 
t.  i.,  1706);  whom  several  more  recent  writers  have  followed,  as 
K.  von  Raumer  (Palastina,  1840),  F.  de  Rougemont  (History  of  the 
Earth,  1856),  Baumgarten,  and,  to  some  extent,  Delitzsch  (in  their 
commentaries  on  Gen.  ii.  and  iii.)  The  majority,  however,  of  the 
Reformational  and  post-Reformational  theologians  firmly  maintain 
the  identity  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  described  in  Gen.  ii.  10  ff.  with 
some  known  region  of  the  earth,  consequently  the  topographical 
determinability  of  Paradise.  In  attempting  to  determine  its  position 
they  generally  employed  as  a  means  of  doing  so  the  four  streams, 
Pishon,  Gihon,  Phrat,  and  Hiddekel,  mentioned  in  the  passage. 
And  in  this  case  the  suggestion  was  a  most  natural  one,  of  taking 
the  two  last-named  rivers,  as  factors  recognised  \\ith  certainty  and 
beyond  dispute,  as  the  starting-point  for  more  nearly  defining  ;  and 
consequently  pronouncing  Mesopotamia,  or  some  other  special  dis- 
trict of  the  Euphrates-lands,  to  be  the  Paradise  of  the  Bible.     In  this 


APPENDIX.  385 

way  Calvin,  in  his  Commentary  on  Genesis — and  those  who  follow 
him  either  unreservedly  or  with  unimportant  modifications,  as  Francis 
Junius,  Joh.  Hopkinson  (as  above),  Jos.  Scaliger,  Hugo  Grotius, 
J.  H.  Hottinger,  Joh.  Voorst,  Sam.  Bochart,  Steph.  Morinos,  Athan. 
Kircher,  Dan.  Huetius,  and  in  later  times  J.  E.  Silberschlag 
("  Geogonie,"  Th.  ii.,  Berlin,  1780)  and  others, — came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  region  of  the  mouths  of  the  Euphrates,  or  of  the 
Shaft  el  Arab,  which  in  some  way,  as  by  assuming  the  existence  of  a 
number  of  alleged  former  canals,  it  was  sought  to  represent  as  con- 
sisting of  four  streams,  is  to  be  identified  with  the  Mosaic  Paradise. 
A  view  which  has  lately  found  again  in  Pressel  (Herzog's  R.  E,,  as 
before)  a  warm  and  acute  defender,  who  rests  his  argument  on  a 
much  better  exegetical  foundation  than  that  of  the  earlier  writers. 
Others,  for  whom  the  interpretation  of  the  four  "  heads  "  {rdshhn, 
V.  10)  in  the  sense  of  "arms,"  "mouths  of  a  river,"  necessary  in 
support  of  this  view,  appeared  less  suitable,  but  who,  nevertheless, 
believed  the  well-known  names  Phrat  and  Hiddekel  are  to  be  followed 
as  guiding  stars,  placed  Eden  at  the  soiu-ces  of  the  two  Mesopotamian 
streams,  thus  in  Armenia.  To  this  land,  however,  in  order  to  show 
that  the  Pishon  and  Gihon  rose  in  moderate  proximity,  some  other 
conterminous  region  was  added ;  whether  Colchis  =  Chavila,  neigh- 
bour to  it  on  the  north  (so,  after  Reland,  A.  Calmet,  J.  Jahn,  Rosen- 
miiller,  Tuch,  Keil,  Kurtz,  Delitzsch,  De  Rougemont,  etc.),  or  the 
uplands  stretching  out  from  this  region  eastwards,  as  far  as  the 
Paropomisan  Mountains,  the  birthplace  of  the  Oxus  ( ?  =  Gihon),  in 
which  latter  case  it  would  appear  that  eventually  also  the  Jaxartes 
or  the  Indus  (Pishon)  might  be  brought  into  the  list;  thus  first  J.  Dav. 
Michaelis  (in  the  supplement  to  his  O.  T.  with  annotations),  then 
A.  Th.  Hartmann  (Aufkldrungen  iiber  Asien,  1806),  Hammer  (in  the 
Wiener  Jahrbb.,  1830),  Yj^oh€\.  (Cottimentary  on  Genesis,  1852),  and 
others.  Many  advocates  of  the  latter  view  lay  stress  upon  the  alleged 
mythical  character  of  the  whole  Biblical  account  of  Paradise  and  the 
Fall,  and  thereby  approach  the  mythological  interpretation  attempted 
with  various  modifications  by  Herder,  Paulus,  Schelling,  Gunth. 
Wahl,  Eichhorn,  Buttmann,  Gesenius,  Ewald,  Sickler,  Redslob, 
Bertheau,  and  others.  Moreover,  even  of  these  some  at  least  think 
in  general  of  a  definite  land  as  the  regio  Paradisi,  denoted,  even 
though  in  indistinct  outline,  by  the  Biblical  tradition.  Thus  Herder 
thinks  more  especially  of  Cashmere ;  Buttmann  and  Ewald,  each  in 
a  pecuHar  manner,  of  India  (whence  the  latter  supposes  the  tradition 
to  have  wandered  to  Farther  Asia,  and  here  in  consequence  to  have 

25 


^86  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

been  supplemented  or  interpolated  by  the  addition  of  the  names 
Phrat  and  Hiddekel  to  the  Pishon  and  Gihon,  i.e.,  to  the  Indus  and 
Ganges) ;  G.  Wahl  and  Sickler  of  the  high  table-land  between  the 
Euphrates  and  Oxus,  or  the  region  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  etc.     Only 
Paulus,   Eichhorn,   Gesenius,    and   substantially  also  Bertheau  (for 
whom  the  Pishon  =  Ganges,  while  the  Gihon  =  Nile,  and  yet  he 
maintains  that  the  Garden  of  Eden  is  to  be  sought  in  the  remote 
north  !)  give  up  all  attempt  at  finding  a  clear  and  definite  geogra- 
phical conception  in  the  background  of  the  narrative,  and  thus  take 
for  granted  the  absurdity  of  its  contents.     Similarly  also  within  a  very 
recent  period  Jul.  Grill  {The  Patriarchs  of  Mankmd ;  a  Contribution 
to  the  Foundation  of  a  Science  of  Hebrew  Antiquities,  ii.  [German] 
Leipzig,   1875,  S.  164  fif.,  242  ff.),  who  strongly  urges  the   mythical 
character  of  the  Jahvistic  description  of  the   site  of  Paradise,  as 
passing  out  of  the  domain  of  concrete  geographical  presentations ; 
but  yet  fancies  he  can  trace  a  dim  reminiscence  of  the  lands  of  upper 
India  as  once  the  cradle  of  the  Semitic  race.     For  alike  the  names 
Chavila  (=  Capila,  Campila)  and  Gush  (=  Kuga)  point  to  India,  as 
also  the  river  name  Pishon,  which  certainly  denotes  the  Indus,  as 
Gihon  the  Nile,  or  perhaps  also  the  Ganges ;  so  that  thus  in  one 
respect  Ewald's  hypothesis  with  regard  to  the  account  of  Paradise 
approaches  particularly  near  to  the  truth ;  in  another  respect  that  of 
Bertheau  does  so. — Substantially  almost  the  same  results  are  arrived 
at  by  the  investigations  of  Dr.  Joseph  Kuhl,  rector  of  the  Catholic 
Progymnasium  at  Jiilich  {Die  Anfiinge  des  Menschengeschlechts  und 
sein  einheitlicher  Ursprung  [Early  History  of  Mankind,  and  Unity  of 
its  Origin],  Bonn  1875,  S.  113  ff.)     For  him  Hindoo  Koosh  is  the 
mountain  of  Paradise  ("Aram-Aryana") ;  the  Pishon  denotes  in  his 
estimation  the  Indus,  the  Gihon,  the  Nile,  etc.     He  too  accordingly 
supposes  a  mythic  disturbance  of  the  original  form  of  the  tradition, 
in  consequence  of  which  "  we   are  deprived  of  the  possibility  of 
recognising  in  Eden  a  definite  geographical  locality." 

For  all  the  theologians  or  orientalists  hitherto  mentioned,  the  four 
streams  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  form  the  principal,  nay  for  many  of 
them  almost  the  exclusive  means  of  direction  in  their  conjectures 
with  regard  to  its  position.  To  somewhat  differerrt  views  have  those 
come  who  have  regarded  these  four  rivers  as  only  an  element  of  the 
second  rank  for  the  determination  of  the  region  of  Paradise,  and  on 
the  other  hand  have  made  the  natural  products  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  its  trees  of  life,  its  gold,  bdellium,  etc.,  in  some  case  seven  its 
supranatural  guardians,  the  cherubim,  the  gnomons  of  prime  signifi- 


APPENDIX.  387 

cance  for  its  discovery.  By  considerations  of  this  sort  were  Grotius 
and  Burnet  influenced,  when  the  former  recognised  in  the  flaming 
swords  of  the  cherubim  an  allusion  to  burning  naphtha  (frequently 
occurring  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Euphrates  lands),  the  latter  to . 
the  glowing  heat  of  the  torrid  zone.  For  the  Konigsberg  theologian 
Hasse  ("Discoveries  in  the  Field  of  the  Earliest  History  of  the  Earth 
and  of  Man"  [German],  Konigsb.  1801,)  the  supposed  identity  of 
the  Vdolach  (Luther,  bdellium)  with  the  amber  of  the  Baltic  lands 
became  a  decisive  motive  for  placing  Paradise  upon  the  coast  of  the 
Baltic,  and  definitely  in  Prussia,  whose  "  claims  as  an  amber  land 
to  have  been  the  Paradise  of  the  ancients,"  he  sought,  particularly  by 
the  help  of  the  Eddie  mythology,  expressly  to  maintain.  On  the 
other  hand,  Credner  (in  Illgen's  Zeitschrift  f.  Hist.  T/ieologie,  1836, 
H.  i)  was  led,  in  part  by  asserted  points  of  contact  between  the 
history  of  Paradise  and  the  legends  of  classic  antiquity,  in  part 
(more  specially)  by  the  fable  of  the  golden  apples  of  the  Hesperides, 
to  place  the  Hebrew  "  garden  of  delight "  in  the  far  west,  in  the 
Canary  Islands,  and  to  resolve  the  four  streams  into  the  all-surrounding 
Okeanos  ! 

Without  always  losing  themselves  in  such  quixotic  adventures  as 
these,  but  certainly  also  without  treating  the  Biblical  tradition  less 
contemptuously — either  as  leaving  it  entirely  out  of  consideration, 
or  degrading  it  to  the  level  of  a  mere  myth — have  very  recently 
a  number  o(  historic-anthropologic  or  ?iatural  philosophic  inquirers 
attempted  to  solve  the  question  of  Paradise  by  the  indications 
belonging  to  the  province  of  natural  history  which  are  to  be  taken 
into  account.  The  four  rivers  remain,  as  belonging  to  the  supposed 
mythological  clothing  of  the  narrative,,  for  the  greater  part  entirely 
unnoticed  by  these  natural-philosophic  seekers  after  Paradise;  yea, 
the  problem  is  ordinarily  only  one  of  the  determining,  or  render- 
ing more  or  less  probable,  the  region  whence  the  diffusion  of  the 
human  race  over  the  earth  proceeded.  Of  course  it  would  be  only 
advocates  of  the  anthropological  Monogenism  who  take  part  in  this 
discussion.  Far  those  who  espouse  polygenistic  theories,  whether 
they  are  based  on  an  anti-Darwinistic  foundation  (as  in  the  school 
of  the  North  American  anthropologists,  Morton  and  Agissez),  or 
even  favour  at  the  same  time  the  Darwin-Hackel  doctrine  of  man's 
descent  from  apes  (as,  ^.^.,  Vogt,  Schaafhausen,  Ed.  Reich — "  Der 
Mensch  und  die  Seele,"  Berl.  1872,  S.  56  ff — to  which  latterly  also 
Darwin  himself  approaches),  the  question  as  to  the  centre  of  creation 
or  the  primitive  hearth  of  the  history  of  civilisation  necessarily  ceases 


388  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

to  have  any  meaning. — Within  the  hterature  bearing  on  this  topic 
we  encounter  a  moderately  great  diversity  of  mutually  contradictory 
views. 

1.  In  favour  of  a  tropical  land  in  general,  without  nearer  defi- 
nition of  the  locality  in  which  it  is  to  be  sought,  does  the  Austrian 
linguist  and  ethnologist,  Fr.  Miiller,  express  himself — on  p.  37  of  his 
Etimographie  (Vienna,  1873),  a  work  composed  from  an  essentially 
Darwinian  point  of  view. 

2.  In  favour  of  Equatorial  Africa,  whose  slender-nosed  species 
of  apes,  the  gorilla,  etc.,  appear  to  him  the  most  probable  immediate 
forerunners  of  man,  Darwin  has  expressed  himself  in  the  sixth 
chapter  of  his  "Descent  of  Man"  (London,  1871,  vol.  i.,  p.  199). 
The  same  view  does  Huxley  appear  to  espouse  {Evidence  as  to  the 
Place  of  Man  in  Nature,  1863);  since  for  him  also  the  gorilla  and 
chimpanzee  are  the  direct  precursors  or  progenitors  of  man. — It  is 
remarkable  that  in  favour  of  this  locality  a  decided  Christian  believer 
and  resolute  opponent  of  Darwin's  theory  contended  with  the  greatest 
warmth,  nay  sacrificed  his  life  to  the  restless  endeavour  after  its 
empirical  verification.  David  Livingstone  sought  with  indefatigable 
zeal  during  his  last  great  journey  after  the  discovery  of /f/^r  mighty 
streams,  taking  their  rise  from  one  mountain  (west  of  Tanganyika 
Lake),  of  the  existence  of  which  he  had  heard  by  report,  and  in 
which  he  hoped  to  find  the  true  sources  of  the  Nile,  as  described  by 
Herodotus,  ii.  28,  but  also  the  rivers  of  Paradise.  Com  p.  Stanley, 
How  I  found  Livingsto?ie,  p.  454  sqq.,  618,  626,  714. 

3.  Either  Central  Africa,  and  if  here  the  well-watered  region  of  the 
sources  of  the  Nile,  or  Citerior  India,  with  its  luxuriant  vegetation, 
its  abundance  in  other  respects  of  the  products  of  nature,  and  its 
many  mighty  streams,  Is  declared  by  Oscar  F.  Peschel,  in  his 
[German]  article  "On  the  Position  of  Paradise,"  {Ausland,  1867, 
No.  47 ;  and  also  in  his  "New  Problems  of  Comparative  Geography  " 
[German],  1869),  to  be  the  most  probable  cradle  of  our  race. 

4.  Lemuria,  a  now  submerged  southern  continent,  between  Citerior 
India  and  New  Holland  on  the  one  hand,  and  Madagascar  (as  also 
Ceylon)  on  the  other,  the  former  existence  of  which  it  was  first 
sought  to  render  probable  on  the  part  of  the  English  zoologist  Sclater, 
who  was  followed  too  by  Huxley,  Hooker,  Bonwick  {Origin  of  the 
Tasmanians,  Lond.  1870),  also  Peschel,  as  above,  is  supposed  by 
Hackel  to  be  the  starting-point  whence  the  "twelve  species  of  men" 
gradually  spread  over  the  present  surface  of  the  earth.  {Naturliche 
Schbjfungsgeschichte,    3rd   edn.,    1872,    S.    321  ;    619  ff.)      To    this 


APPENDIX.  389 

hypothesis,  founded  partly  upon  the  geography  of  animals  and  plants, 
partly  upon  alleged  "  chorologic  "  facts,  adhesion  has  been  given  in 
the  main  by  Oscar  Schmidt  (1873),  F.  v.  Hellwald  (1874),  Alb. 
Heine  (1872),  Thomassen  (1872),  the  anonymous  author  of  "  Racen- 
lehre  und  Geschichte "  (in  the  Ausland,  1872,  No.  49),  and  many 
others. 

5.  The  sunken  Atlantis  of  Plato — not,  however,  as  having  existed 
between  Europe  and  America,  but  as  a  continent  or  large  island 
formerly  situate  in  Oceania — is  declared  by  the  American  who  writes 
under  what  is  probably  the  nom  de  plume  of  George  Browne,  in  his 
strange  book,  of  apparently  humorous  design  :  Palmoraina  .... 
(Erlangen,  1867)  to  be  the  Paradise  whence  early  mankind  first  spread 
over  America. — Yet  within  recent  times  scientific  men  of  note  have 
seriously  pleaded,  on  the  ground  of  the  evidence  of  natural  science 
(that  of  a  plataeonologic  nature,  as  also  that  derived  from  the  geo- 
graphical distribution  of  plants),  in  favour  of  the  actual  existence  of 
an  Atlantis  in  the  tertiary  period;  but  as  lying  between  central 
America  and  Europe,  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  :  so  Fr.  Unger,  Die 
versunkene  Insel  Atlantis,  i860;  as  also  Oswald  Heer,  Die  Foiarldnder, 
S.  21  fif.  Comp.  also  the  [German]  work  of  Alex.  Braun,  "On  the 
Significance  of  Development  in  Natural  History,"  1872,  S.  34. 

6.  America  have  different  philologists  and  naturalists,  both  of  the 
Old  World  and  the  New,  sought  to  prove  to  be  the  primary  home 
of  the  human  race  ;  generally  in  connection  with  the  supposition  of 
an  immigration  of  the  inhabitants  of  Europe,  Asia,  etc.,  over  the 
Aleutian  islands  and  north-east  Siberia.  So  Bernard  Romans  (in 
Smith-Barton,  New  Views,  p.  vi.);  J.  Klaproth,  Aria polyglotta,  p.  322  ; 
Gobineau,  Essai  sur  I'inegalite  des  races  humaines,  i.  371;  ii.  347; 
and  others.     Comp,  Ranch,  Einheit  des  Menschengeschlechts,  S.  269. 

7.  The  Polar  Lands  of  the  north,  e.g.,  Greenland,  are  regarded 
by  Ph.  Spiller,  in  his  popular  works  on  Cosmogony  (187 1,  1872),  as  the 
probable  birthplace  and  earliest  limit  of  the  dispersion  of  mankind  : 
for  the  reason  that  the  lofty  mountain  lands  and  the  polar  regions, 
after  a  sufficient  cooling  down,  must  first  have  been  habitable,"  etc. 

8.  Europe,  and  indeed  Southern  Europe  in  the  post-pliocene  or 
diluvial  age  (in  which  the  necessities  of  the  glacial  period  had 
gradually  compelled  the  higher  classes  of  animals,  formerly  most 
abundantly  nourished  by  the  rankly  luxuriant  vegetation  of  the 
miocene  and  phocene  epoch,  to  have  recourse  to  labour  and  to  the 
preparing  of  such  rude  products  of  art  as  the  earliest  implements  of 
stone  and  of  bone,  belonging  to  the  period  of  the  mammoth  and 


390  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

rein-deer),  is  stated  by  Moritz  Wagner,  in  opposition  to  Darwin's 
Africa-hypothesis,  to  be  the  true  Paradise  of  the  primeval  ape-Uke 
ancestors  of  our  race ;  as  the  place  where  that  wonderful  metamor- 
phosis took  place,  "which,  after  the  incalculably  long  ages  of  an 
exclusively  animal  life,  at  last  raised  the  stupid  anthropoid  to  the 
thinking  anthropos"  (in  the  Ausland,  187 1,  No.  24,  S.  558  ff.) — • 
Specially  Styria,  in  the  later  tertiary  period,  or  in  the  time  of  the 
peat-formation,  immediately  preceding  the  glacial  period,  when  a 
peculiarly  rich  and  luxuriantly  developed  plant  life  must  have 
flourished  in  that  region,  is  taken  by  F.  Unger  as  the  site  of  Paradise, 
the  primal  abode  of  mankind  :  Das  Alter  der  Menschheit  tind  das 
Faradies,  Vienna,  1866,  S.  62.  ff. — Proceeding  only  from  a  linguistic 
standpoint,  and  having  before  his  mind  not  so  much  the  whole  of 
mankind  as  rather  only  the  Indo-Germanic  race,  J.  'G.  Cuno  (in  his 
"Researches  in  the  Domain  of  Ancient  Ethnology,"  Th.  i.,  Die  Skythen, 
Berl.  1 87 1,)  seeks  to  prove  that  CV;z/r«/  Eu7vpe  is  the  primal  seat 
and  starting-point  of  the  earliest  life  of  civilisation.  To  this  view  a 
qualified  assent  is  given  by  F.  Spiegel  {Ausland,  187 1,  No.  24;  the 
same,  1862,  No.  41),  who  moreover  adduces  the  authority  of  Latham 
(1854),  Benfey  (1868),  Laz.  Geiger,  and  the  American  Whitney  as 
favourable  to  this  hypothesis,  in  opposition  as  it  is  to  the  ordinary 
assertion  of  the  movement  to  the  Indo-European  culture  having 
originated  in  Central  Asia. 

9.  In  favour  of  Central  Asia  or  the  Asiatic  Highlands  as  the 
primeval  dwelling-place  not  merely  of  the  Arian  family,  but  also  of 
the  whole  human  race,  there  ^till  arise  authorities  of  distinction, 
alike  in  the  province  of  natural  philosophy  and  the  science  of  language 
as  of  theology  and  philosophy.  Thus,  as  an  opponent  in  particular 
of  that  Benfey-Cuno  assertion  of  a  Central  European  origin  to  the 
Aryans,  A.  Hofer,  ''  Die  Heimath  des  indogermanischen  Urvolks  " 
(in  Kuhn's  Zeitschr.  fiir  Sprachwissensc/u,  Bd.  xx.,  S.  379),  and  H.  v. 
Wolzogen,  "Der  Ursitz  der  Indogermanen"  {Lazanis'  tmd  SteinthaPs 
Zeitschr.  fiir  Viilkerpsychologie,  1874,  i.)  So  farther  K.  Chr.  Planck, 
who  maintains  that  specially  the  "  central  table-land  of  Asia,"  this 
"  most  concentrated  and  colossal  elevation  on  the  face  of  the  earth," 
is  to  be  regarded  as  the  original  abode  of  the  human  race.  ( IVa/ir- 
heit  und  Flac/iheit  des  Darivinisimis,  Nordlingen,  1872,  S.  175  ff.) 
Similarly  the  Danish  writer  on  the  Philosophy  of  History,  C.  Henrik 
Scharling,  who  maintains  that  "  the  cradle  of  mankind  is  to  be  sought 
where  Persia  and  India  impinge  upon  each  other,  between  the  moun- 
tain chains  of  Beloor-tagh  and  Hindoo-Koosh."     {Humanitdt  und 


APPENDIX.  391 

Christenthum,  p.  84  of  vol.  i.,  German  edition,  Giitersloh,  1874).  In 
like  manner,  Ernst  von  Bunsen  {Die  Einheit  der  Religionen,  etc.,  Berl. 
1870,  S.  14  ff.),  who  thinks  of  the  region  of  the  som-ces  of  the  Oxus 
and  Indus,  north  of  the  Himalayas,  or  the  '•'  plateau  of  Pamer  "  [to 
the  north-west  of  Tibet],  as  the  place  where — it  is  true  as  early  as 
the  tertiary  period — mankind  came  into  being,  and  lived  through  its 
paradisiac  childhood.  So  also  Supdt.  O.  Wolff,  who,  like  the  pre- 
ceding writers,  is  induced,  mainly  on  account  of  the  alleged  agree- 
ment of  the  earliest  traditions  of  all  inner-Asiatic  nations,  to  place 
alike  Paradise  and  Mount  Ararat,  or  the  apobaterion  of  the  ark  of 
Noah,  at  the  Pamer-plateau  and  the  Beloor  mountains,"  this  "  most 
elevated  centre  of  Higher  Asia."  {Alt-testamentl.  Stiidien  und  Kritiken, 
i.,  1874,  S.  8,  28  f.) — That  which  has  been  manifestly  overlooked  in 
connection  Avith  assigning  so  northerly  and  so  elevated  a  position  to 
Paradise — the  fearful  se\"erity  of  the  cold  in  this  region,  by  which  an 
English  expedition  in  1874,  consisting  of  Messrs.  Trotter,  Biddulph, 
Gordon,  etc.,  was  almost  frozen  upon  the  gigantic  snowfields  of  the 
Pamer  table-land,  and  could  pass  through  them  only  with  the  loss 
of  the  skin  of  the  nose — this  has  Prof  George  Gerland,  in  the  first 
vol.  of  his  "  Anthropologische  Beitrage"  (Halle,  1874),  more  carefully 
taken  into  account,  inasmuch  as  he  decides  in  favour  of  the  more 
southern  part  of  Central  Asia,  and  specially  the  land  south  and  south- 
west of  the  Himalayas,  as  the  original  home  of  the  human  race.  In 
support  of  his  position  he  has  specially  availed  himself  of  the  instances 
in  the  geographical  distribution  of  plants  which  point  to  this  region 
as  the  native  land  of  most  of  the  plants  of  culture,  and  particularly 
of  the  cereals,  this  main  "  lever  in  the  development  of  civilisation  " — 
instances  to  which  certainly  a  special  weight  must  be  attached  in  the 
deciding  of  this  question.  Comp.  Zockler's  notice  of  the  said  work, 
in  the  Beweis  des  Glaubens,  1875,  Feb.,  p.  108  ff. 

After  not  only  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  almost  every  zone 
on  earth,  has  thus  been  fixed  on  by  the  hypotheses  of  the  modern 
seekers  after  Paradise,  but  even  besides  this  certain  primeval  (?)  con- 
tinents have  been  new  created  for  this  express  occasion,  opinion 
seems  within  the  most  recent  period  to  incline  to  return  to  that 
view,  an  especially  favourite  one  with  the  theologians  of  the  age 
immediately  following  the  Reformation  (Calvin,  Grotius,  and  their 
successors),  which  places  Paradise  at  the  mouths  of  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris — thus  seeks  it  where,  according  to  Biblical  as  well  as 
ancient  Babylonian  documents,  also  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  "  (Gen.  xi. 
28),  the  ancestral  land  of  the  Abrahamides  was  to  be  found.     For 


392  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

at  the  present  time  the  voice  of  a  distinguished  geographical  explorer 
has  been  powerfully  raised  : 

lo.  In  favour  of  north-eastern  Arabia,  including  the 
SOUTHERN  regions  OF  THE  EUPHRATES.  The  Paris  Academician 
Vivien  de  St.  Martin,  in  his  Histoire  de  la  Geographie  (Paris,  1874), 
p.  529,  espouses  this  view — partly  on  account  of  grounds  of  probability 
of  an  ethnological  and  natural-scientific  nature,  partly  because  he 
believes  the  Pishon  of  Genesis  is  indisputably  to  be  recognised  in  a 
large  intermittent  stream  of  central  and  north-east  Arabia,  discovered 
by  Consul  Wetzstein  (1865),  which  in  former  times  constantly 
emptied  its  waters  into  the  Lower  Euphrates  (close  below  its  junction 
with  the  Tigris),  and  even  now  is  said  at  times  to  flow  through  the 
whole  peninsula  in  that  direction  towards  the  north-east. — The  learned 
reasoning  with  which,  e.g.,  Pressel  (Herzog,  as  before)  seeks  to  prove 
the  lower  district  of  the  Euphrates  to  be  the  true  site  of  the  BibHcal 
Paradise,  would  thus — supposing  the  hypothesis  of  St.  Martin  to  be 
well  founded — at  any  rate  receive  important  support.  The  British 
Assyriologist,  too,  A.  H.  Sayce,  has  adopted  the  opinion  that  this 
central-Arabian  tributary  stream  of  the  Shatt  el-Arab  is  the  fourth 
river  of  Paradise  ;  but  identifies  this  with  the  Gihon  of  Genesis, 
whilst  he  believes  the  Pishon  is  to  be  recognised  in  the  Pasitigris  [in 
Chald^a].  {Academy,  20th  March,  1875.)  In  opposition  to  all  this, 
there  remains,  it  is  true,  the  exegetical  difficulty  that  not  the  lower 
course,  or  mouths,  but  the  sources  ("  heads  ")  of  four  mighty  streams 
must  have  been  found  in  Paradise  !  In  presence  of  this  statement 
of  the  text,  which  hardly  admits  of  any  qualifying  explanation,  an 
abandoning  of  the  attempt  to  point  out  any  definite  narrowly  circum- 
scribed locality  as  the  site  of  the  former  Garden  of  Eden — the  position 
of  which  must,  however,  be  assigned  to  Southern  Asia  in  general — 
appears  the  only  wise  and  appropriate  course  with  regard  to  the 
matter.  [The  cumulative  evidence  in  favour  of  No.  9  of  the  above 
positions  would  nevertheless  appear  to  be  exceedingly  strong,  if  we 
may  suppose  the  land  of  Eden — whence  (the  water)  was  divided 
and  became  four  river-sources — to  have  been  coextensive  with  the 
whole  elevated  tract  between  the  sources  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  those  of  the  Indus  and  Indian  Hyphasis  (iden- 
tified by  Haneberg  with  the  Sutlej),  on  the  other.  The  Garden 
EASTWARD  IN  Eden  is  then  to  be  sought  to  the  west  of  the  Punjab. 
-Tr.] 


APPENDIX.  393 


IV. 
Against  the  Assertion  of  an  entire  Irreligiousness  on 

THE  part  of  certain  NaTIONS. 
(To  p.  48.) 
The  assertion  that  there  are  savage  nations  who  are  without  any 
kind  of  religious  feelings,  conceptions,  or  rites — in  other  words,  that 
the  argumentum  e  consensu  gentiwn  is  to  be  struck  out  of  the  list  of 
proofs  for  the  reality  of  the  Divine  existence  and  of  immortality — 
has  found  numerous  advocates  in  England  and  France  during  the 
period  of  Deism  and  naturalistic  scepticism.  It  was  specially 
Locke  who,  in  connection  with  his  denial  of  the  existence  of  innate 
ideas,  gave  the  impulse  to  the  investigation  of  the  ethnologic-culture- 
historic  material  collected  by  early  and  later  travellers,  with  the 
object  of  obtaining  direct  evidence  for  the  entire  absence  of  religious 
and  moral  conceptions  among  many  wild  tribes.  When  (in  his  Essay 
concerning  Human  Understanding  [1690],  i.  3,  §  9)  he  "ransacked" 
the  travels  of  the  French  traveller  in  Brazil,  De  Lery  (1580),  the 
accounts  of  a  Peter  Martyr  and  Garcilaso  de  la  Vega  on  the  customs 
of  the  American  Indians,  the  statements  of  a  Vossius,  a  Lambert, 
a  Gruber,  and  others,  about  the  wild  tribes  of  Africa,  Asia,  etc.,  "in 
order  to  relate  to  us  how  the  Mingrelians  without  any  reproach  of 
conscience  buried  their  children  alive,  and  how  the  Tupinambos 
believe  that  by  revenge  and  an  unstinted  devouring  of  their  enemies 
they  will  merit  Paradise  "  (Alb.  Lange,  Gesch.  des  Materialism.,  2nd 
edn.,  1873,  i.,  p.  306;  comp.  J.  B.  Meyer,  Philos.  Zeitfragen,  p.  284), 
he  was  concerned  it  is  true  only  with  the  proving  of  his  favourite 
proposition  of  the  absence  of  innate  mo7-al  ideas.  The  polemic 
against  the  demonstrative  force  of  the  arg.  e  consensu  gentium,  that 
historico-ethnologic  or  national-psychologic  proof  for  the  existence 
of  God  already  formulated  by  Cicero  {Tusc.  disputt.,  i.  13  :  Porro 
firmissimum  hoc  afferri  videtur,  cur  deos  esse  credamus,  quod  nulla 
gens  tam  fera,  nemo  omnium  tarn  sit  immanis,  cujus  mentem  non 
imbuerit  deorum  opinio.  Multi  de  iis  prava  sentiunt;  id  enim 
vitioso  more  efifici  solet :  omnes  tamen  esse  vim  et  naturam  divinam 
arbitrantur." — Comp.  also  De  legg.,  i.  8,  and  De  nat.  dear.,  i.  17  :  .  .  . 
intelligi  necesse  est  deos  esse,  quoniam  insitas  eorum  vel  potius 
innatas  cognitiones  habemus  ;  de  quo  autem  omnium  natura  con- 
sentit,  id  verum  esse  necesse  est)  was  farther  from  his  mind  than 
that  against  the  universality  and  innate  character  of  certain  nations 


394  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

and  principles  of  morality.  Nevertheless,  the  contesting  of  the 
national-psychological  proof  of  the  existence  of  God  on  the  part  of 
later  assailants  of  revealed  religion,  as  Hume,  Condillac,  Helvetius, 
the  French  Encyclopaedists,  and  the  modern  Materialists,  for  the 
most  part  attaches  itself  to  Locke's  doctrine  of  sensations,  and  in 
many  cases  appeals  expressly  to  his  authority.  Among  the  more 
recent  materialistic  advocates  of  the  thesis  of  an  absolute  irreli- 
giousness  of  many  peoples  are  principally  to  be  mentioned  :  Louis 
Biichner  {Kraft  imd  Staffs  S.  i86  ff. ;  also,  Der  Gotteshegriff  und 
dessen  Bedeictung  in  der  Gegenwart,  1874);  K.  Vogt  [Vorkss.  iib. 
den  Menschen,  1863,  i.,  S.  293  f )  ;  Sir  John  Lubbock  {Prehistoric 
Times,  p.  564;  and  Origin  of  Civilisation,  p.  138);  Sir  Samuel 
Baker,  the  renowned  explorer  of  the  Sources  of  the  Nile  {The 
Albert  Nyanza,  i.,  p.  246  ;  also  "  Races  of  the  Nile  Basin,"  in 
Trans,  of  the  Ethnolog.  Soc,  vol.  v.,  p.  231);  Moritz  Wagner 
("  Neueste  Beitrage  ....  in  the  supplement  to  the  Aiigsh.  Allg. 
Ztg.,  1873,  No.  92)  ;  as  well  as  Osc.  Schmidt  {Descendenzlehre  und 
Darwifiisfnus,  Leipz.  1873,  S.  279  ff.)  It  is  significant  that  to 
these  assailants  of  the  universality  of  religious  conceptions  among 
all  nations  there  may  be  opposed — apart  from  the  number,  by  no 
means  small,  of  positive-theological  or  idealistic-philosophic  inves- 
tigators, who  have  expressed  themselves  in  an  opposite  sense — 
also  a  series  of  antagonists  belonging  to  the  province  of  natural 
science  or  philology,  who  may  be  accused  of  anything  but  a  pre- 
judice in  favour  of  orthodoxy,  nay  some  of  whom  belong  to  a 
decidedly  Darwinistic  or  even  materialistic  school.  We  mention 
here  only  for  example.  Ad.  Bastian  {Die  Volker  des  ostl.  Asien, 
Bd.  vi.,  pref ,  S.  i  ff.  ;  also  "  Der  Mensch,"  etc.,  iii.  208) ; 
A.  de  Quatrefages  ("  Unite  de  I'espece  humaine,"  in  the  Revue  des 
deux  Mondes,  1861,  Avr.,  p.  654  sqq.);  G.  Lejean  {Rev.  des  d. 
Mondes,  1862,  Avr.,  p.  760);  Theod.  Waitz  {Anthropologie  der 
Naturvolker,  Bd.  ii.,  S.  72  ff.);  G.  Gerland,  the  continuer  of 
Waitz'  A?ithropologie  (vi.  796  ff.),  as  also  in  his  own  Anthropol. 
Beitrage  (1874,  i.  2076  ff.) ;  G.  Fritsch  {Die  Eingeborenon  Siidafrikas, 
1872,  S.  57,  197,  265  ff.);  Max  Miiller  {Inb-oduction  to  the  Science 
of  Religion — see  above,  p.  48  ;  also  in  his  presidential  address  before 
the  Aryan  section  of  the  Lond.  Congress  of  Orientalists  in  1874, 
see  Report,  etc.,  p.  21);  Osc.  F.  Peschel  (Volkerkunde,  139 — 273); 
E.  B.  Tylor  ("Early  Hist,  of  Mankind  and  Civilisation,"  i.  pp. 
411 — 419  [of  the  Germ,  edn.])  Even  F.  v.  Hellwald  has,  as 
already  before  in  several  articles  in  the    "Ausland,"   so  quite  re- 


APPENDIX.  395 

cently  in  his  "  Culturgeschichte  "  (p.  24  ff.),  treated  the  question 
whether  there  are  really  any  tribes  without  a  conception  of  religion 
as  for  the  present  at  least  an  open  one,  and  has  expressed  himself 
with  regard  to  it  with  cautious  reserve.  "  Against  the  assertions 
of  travellers  that  a  people  has  no  religion,  we  must  arm  ourselves 
with  double  precaution  :"  a  people  devoid  of  a  religion  is  properly 
speaking  "a  chimera,  equally  as  a  future  without  a  religion  "  (p.  32); 
"  one  must  be  on  his  guard  against  believing  in  so-called  atheistic 
peoples,  so  long  as  their  language  has  not  been  accurately  investi- 
gated" {Ai/sl.  1870,  p.  1038);  yea  "ethnology  teaches  us  that  the 
existence  of  peoples  without  a  religion  is  to  be  denied  with  almost 
positive  certainty."     [AusL,  1875,  p.  100),  etc. 

From  the  naturalistic  standpoint  the  question  has  received  the 
most  intelligent  treatment  on  the  part  of  Tylor,  as  above.  He 
takes  as  the  "  rudimentary "  or  "  minimal  definition "  of  religion, 
not,  e.g.,  a  developed  notion  of  God,  with  belief  in  a  future 
judgment,  worshipping  of  idols,  offering  of  sacrifices  and  kindred 
rites,  but  merely  the  presence  of  a  "belief  in  spiritual  beings." 
Of  this  belief  in  spiritual  beings — which  essentially  also  Darwin 
{Descent  of  Man,  i.  55)  regards  as  the  minimum  of  religiousness, 
and  which  Tylor  designates  by  the  term  "  animism,"  a  term  occa- 
sionally earlier  employed  by  him,  although  then  generally  in  another 
connection — he  does  not  indeed  assert  with  full  and  positive  decision 
that  every  existing  tribe  actually  possesses  it,  or  must  necessarily 
possess  it.  But  yet  he  feels  himself  constrained  on  the  ground  of 
an  enormous  cumulation  of  testimonies,  to  admit  "  that  belief  in 
spiritual  beings  is  found  among  all  lower  races,  ivith  which  we  are 
sitfficioitly  ifitiniately  acquainted ;  while  the  assertion  that  such 
belief  is  wanting  is  confined  to  ancient  tribes,  or  more  or  less 
imperfectly  described  modern  ones"  (p.  419).  It  is  certainly  not 
impossible,  so  he  reasons,  that  a  people  should  one  day  be  dis- 
covered, which — as,  according  to  the  testimony  of  many  travellers, 
certain  tribes  exist  without  any  acquaintance  with  language  or  with 
the  use  of  fire  (?) — is  wanting  in  any  kind  of  religion.  But  "  if 
it  is  a  question  as  to  facts,  we  must  say  that  hitherto  these  tribes 
have  not  been  found"  (p.  412).  Tylor  points  to  a  multitude  of 
cases  in  which,  too  hastily  and  without  sufficient  acquaintance 
with  the  manners  and  peculiarities  of  the  tribes  in  question,  the 
presence  of  any  traces  of  religious  convictions  has  been  denied 
to  certain  tribes ;  whereas  afterwards  a  more  accurate  observation 
has    clearly   enough   demonstrated    the   presence    of    these   traces. 


39^  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  J.  D.  Lang,  who  has  devoted  himself 
to  explorations  among  the  inhabitants  of  Queensland,  Australia, 
the  aborigines  of  this  district  are  to  be  regarded  as  absolutely 
without  religious  ideas;  and  yet  the  baselessness  of  this  assertion 
may  be  demonstrated  even  from  that  which  this  writer  himself 
adduces  concerning  the  belief  of  the  said  tribes  in  an  evil  spirit, 
Budyah,  the  offering  of  men  and  other  sacrificial  rites  in  order 
to  placate  him,  his  appearing  under  the  form  of  a  serpent,  his 
speaking  through  the  voice  of  thunder,  etc.,  etc.  Similarly  as 
regards  the  assertion  of  Moffat  that  the  Bechuanas  showed  no 
trace  of  belief  in  immortality ;  where  the  statement  immediately 
preceding,  that  the  Bechuana  word  for  shades  or  manes  of  the 
dead  is  "liritj,"  is  in  contradiction  with  this  view:  in  like  manner 
is  it  the  case  with  the  assertion  of  Don  Felix  de  Azara  that 
certain  South  American  tribes,  as  the  Payaguas,  etc.,  possessed 
no  religion  at  all — an  opinion  sufficiently  refuted  by  the  data 
supplied  by  this  traveller  himself  If  also,  Tylor  maintains, 
missionaries  have  frequently  ventured  on  asserting  an  absolute 
irreligiousness  of  this  or  the  other  of  the  more  degraded  tribes 
visited  by  them,  it  was  because  the  peculiarities  of  the  tribe  in 
question  either  had  not  been  thoroughly  enough  studied  by  them, 
or  because  their  aims  at  conversion  had  led  the  savages  purposely 
to  conceal  from  them  their  religious  conceptions  and  rites.  Baker's 
assertion  of  an  absolute  atheism  on  the  part  of  the  Dinkas,  Shil- 
LUKES,  NuEHRS,  Kytshes,  Bohrs,  and  other  tribes  of  the  White 
Nile,  rests  simply  and  solely  upon  a  too  superficial  acquaintance 
with  their  customs,  and  leaves  out  of  consideration  that  which 
earlier  travellers  like  Kaufmann,  Brun-Rollet,  Lejean,  and  others 
have  communicated  wath  regard  to  the  religious  conceptions  and 
sacrificial  rites  of  these  very  peoples  (pp.  413 — 418). 

To  these  instances,  selected  by  Tylor  as  typical  for  the  others — 
instances  of  the  refutation  of  assertions  of  entire  irreligiousness  by 
the  results  of  later  more  accurate  research — we  may  add  the  following. 
The  Dayacks  on  Borneo  were  declared  for  a  time  by  Rajah  Sir  Jas. 
Brooke  to  be  downright  atheists,  until  after  having  obtained  a  more 
accurate  knowledge  of  them  he  was  compelled  to  recall  this  opinion 
as  erroneous.  (Lubbock,  Orig.  of  Civilis.,  p.  227.) — Against  the 
assertion  frequently  advanced,  and  even  most  recently  repeated  by 
Moritz  Wagner,  /.  <:.,  that  all  religious  conception  is  wanting  to  the 
aborigines  of  the  Australian  continent,  a  number  of  significant  facts 
in  evidence  of  the  contrary  have  been  of  late  furnished  by  missionaries, 


APPENDIX. 


397 


travellers,  and  others,  and  have  been  collected  inter  alios  by  Gerland. 
(Waitz'  AnthropoL,  vi.  786  ff.)  That  among  these  he  instances  a 
case  not  in  point — that,  namely,  of  the  tribes  west  of  the  Liverpool 
Range,  who  "ascribed  everything  in  nature  which  they  were  unable 
to  explain  themselves  to  devildevil,"  and  who  thereby  manifest  the 
effect  of  contact  with  some  English  missionaries  [?  or  sailors]  or 
other — does  not  in  the  least  deprive  the  other  facts  collected  by  him 
of  their  convincing  power,  and  by  no  means  calls  for  the  ridicule 
which  Osc.  Schmidt  and  Alb.  Lange,  separating  the  passage  entirely 
from  its  connection,  have  directed  against  Gerland's  whole  argument. 
Comp.  also  the  contributions  of  Quatrefages  {as  above)  on  the  belief 
of  the  Australians  in  immortality  and  in  demons,  especially  those  of 
the  aborigines  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sydney,  who  have  a  belief 
not  only  in  Wanguls  (water-nymphs)  and  Balumbals  (wood-fairies), 
but  also  in  a  good  spirit  named  Coyan,  and  an  evil  spirit  named 
Potoyan;  comp.  further  the  account  given  by  Dr.  v.  Schweinitz, 
Bishop  of  the  Moravian  Church,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  in  New  York  (1873),  ot  the  baptism  of  Nathaniel  Pepper 
in  i860,  as  the  first-fruits  of  one  of  the  most  degraded  tribes  of 
Australian  aborigines  in  the  colony  of  Victoria,  and  the  subsequent 
conversion  and  baptism  of  about  a  hundred  other  members  of  this 
tribe.  Another  case  of  proof  recently  being  afforded  of  the  in- 
accuracy of  that  which  has  been  asserted  as  to  the  total  irreligious- 
ness  of  the  aborigines  of  Australia  is  that  mentioned  by  Max  Miiller, 
in  his  address  at  the  London  Congress  of  Orientalists  before 
referred  to  (Report,  p.  21).  The  most  degraded  tribe  of  the  Kami- 
larois  in  the  extreme  north-west  of  New  South  Wales  is  acquainted, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  Sir  Hercules  Robinson,  the  Governor 
of  the  colony,  not  only  with  a  supreme  Divinity,  Bhaiami,  ("Creator, 
Maker,")  but  also  with  a  subordinate  Divinity,  Turramiilan,  as 
mediator  through  whom  the  revelations  of  that  god  are  made  to  men, 
etc.. — The  tribes  of  Kohls  too,  in  Bengal,  have  in  like  manner  been 
repeatedly  represented  as  without  any  kind  of  religious  ideas  beyond 
a  vague  superstituous  dread  of  demons.  Even  in  missionary  circles 
this  view  was  to  some  extent  shared  :  the  missionary  Jellinghaus 
entertained  it  for  a  while,  until — in  part  from  information  obtained 
from  an  adherent  of  the  Brahmo-Samoj  sect,  but  principally  as  a  con- 
sequence of  his  own  better  acquaintance  with  the  language  of  the 
Kohls — he  was  led  to  another  opinion,  and  learnt  to  recognise  as  the 
true  character  of  the  heathenism  of  these  tribes,  not  so  much  an  abso- 
lute denial  of  God,  as  rather  an  '■'■ignoring  of  God  (Rom.  i.  28,  31) 


398  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

in  the  homage  rendered  to  the  forces  of  nature,  and  to  mysterious 
demoniacal  powers  by  incantations  and  magical  rites,"  etc.  {Allg. 
Miss.  Zischr.  1874,  pp.  29,  63);  comp.  also  L.  Nottrott,  Die  Gosnersche 
Mission  unter  den  Kohls,  1874,  p.  57). — For  the  correction  of  the 
statements  of  Baker  as  to  the  alleged  absolute  irreligiousness  of 
the  Nuehrs,  Dinkas,  and  other  Central  African  tribes,  one  ought 
to  compare  the  data  furnished  by  Georg  Schweinfurt  and  Ernst 
Marno  in  various  places  of  their  works  of  travel  having  reference  to 
these  parts,  e.g.,  what  is  related  by  Marno  {Reisen  i?n  Gebiete  des 
7veissen  tind  blauen  Nil,  Vienna,  1874,-  p.  343  ff.),  concerning  the  cir- 
cumcision practised  among  the  Nuehrs,  their  belief  in  the  evil  spirit 
Nyeledit — with  which  name  too  they  denote  alike  the  Supreme 
Being  and  their  favourite  ox — on  their  rain-making,  magical  arts, 
etc. — The  statements  of  many  earlier  writers  with  regard  to  the 
Hottentots  and  Caffre  peoples  of  South  Africa,  contesting  the 
presence  of  religious  conceptions  among  these  tribes — among  others 
also  on  the  part  of  several  missionaries,  as  Campbell  and  Van  der 
Kemp,  as  moreover  to  some  extent  Moffat — have  reference  as  such 
only  to  the  want  of  the  idea  of  a.  personal  God,  and  not  to  the  absence 
of  all  conceptions  of  spiritual  powers,  of  a  continued  existence  after 
death,  of  magical  arts,  etc.  But  even  these  call  for  a  supplementing 
and  correcting  in  many  respects  ;  partly  from  more  recent  works  of 
travel,  partly  from  the  accounts  of  later  missionaries,  as  Livingstone, 
the  Hermannsburg  and  Berlin  missionaries,  etc.  (Comp.  in  gen. 
Waitz,  Antluvpol.,  ii.  167  ff.,  342  ff. ;  also  Fritsch,  Die  Eingeborenen 
Siidafrika's,  pp.  57,  98,  197,  231,  337  ff.,  who  contests  the  exist- 
ence of  developed  ideas  of  God,  not  of  religious  conceptions  and 
religious  customs  in  general,  among  these  peoples.) — As  respects  the 
absolute  irreligiousness  said  to  exist  among  the  different  savage  tribes 
of  South  America,  especially  in  the  wilds  of  the  Amazon  district, 
upon  which — among  others — Moritz  Wagner  has  recently  laid  such 
great  stress,  we  must  remind  the  reader  of  that  which  so  well-qualified 
an  observer  as  Prince  Max  von  Wied  has  testified  of  even  the  rudest 
of  these  tribes  as  exhibiting  certain  traces  of  belief  in  suprasensuous 
powers.  (Comp.  Miiller,  Amerik.  Urreligionen.)  That  too  which  is 
related  by  Spix  and  Martins,  Wallace,  Bates,  and  Burmeister,  does  not 
appear  to  be  of  a  nature  to  prove  that  these  peoples  are  absolutely 
atheists;  they  too  acknowledge  that  the  conception  of  a  thunder-god, 
a  rain-god,  and  a  certain  hope  of  immortality  exists  among  these 
barbarous  peoples.  (Baumstark,  Christl.  Apologetik  auf  a7ithropolo- 
gischer  Grundlage,  Frankfort,  1872,  i.  266  ff.) 


APPENDIX.  399 

Further,  in  order  to  a  just  appreciation  of  the  rehgious  beUef  of 
many  rude  nations — reduced  to  the  minijnum  of  Tylor's  "animism," 
and  thus  at  times  presenting  the  appearance  of  an  absolute  atheism 
— -we  must  duly  take  into  account  the  fact  that  our  present  stock 
of  knowledge,  with  regard  to  the  spiritual  and  moral  life  of  un- 
civilised nations,  nowhere  extends  back  to  the  original  condition 
of  these  peoples,  but  everywhere  presents  the  result  of  the  manifold 
and  far-reaching  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  their  condition. 
Changes,  however,  of  any  other  kind  than  those  of  a  debasing  and 
degenerating  tendency  can  hardly  be  supposed  within  the  sphere  of 
savage  life.  Even  the  traces  ivhicli  are  still  to  be  found  of  religious 
emotions  or  ideas  regularly  bear  a  character  of  ruin,  pointing  back 
to  earlier,  more  abundant  developments ;  as  not  less,  too,  the  structure 
of  their  languages  manifests  the  most  distinct  indications  of  a  dis- 
organisation, breaking  up,  and  running  wild  having  taken  place. 
Instructive  instances  of  such  degeneration  in  the  structure  and 
vocabulary  of  the  language,  as  well  as  in  the  religious  consciousness 
of  the  people,  are  afforded,  e.g.,  by  the  Bechuanas  of  South  Africa, 
among  whom  Moffat,  during  his  lengthened  missionary  labours,  had 
an  opportunity  of  immediately  observing  the  gradual  impoverish- 
ment of  the  vocabulary — for  example,  the  falling  into  oblivion  of 
the  word  previously  in  use,  Morimo,  "  He  who  rs  in  heaven,  God." 
(Afissionary  Labours  and  Scenes  in  South  Africa,  Lond.  1842.)  The 
same  is  the  case  with  regard  to  those  in  our  own  close  proximity,  the 
Gipsies,  who  have  not  seldom  been  characterised  by  more  super- 
ficial observers  as  absolutely  without  a  religion — so  still  by  Charles 
G.  Leland,  The  English  Gipsies  and  their  Language,  Lond.  1873 — 
whereas  those  who  have  made  more  thorough  research  into  the 
constitution  of  their  language  and  customs  have,  on  the  other  hand, 
come  more  nearly  to  results  such  as  those  formulated  by  Mr.  Groome, 
in  a  lecture  on  the  Gipsies  before  the  Anthropological  Union  at 
Gottingen  in  1873;  "Although  the  xe\\g\on  is  no2u  reduced  almost  to 
nil,  yet  we  meet  here  and  there  with  wards  which  indicate  the 
presence  of  an  earlier  belief ;  e.g.,  duvel,  which  signifies  both  heaven 
and  God,"  etc.,  etc. — Interesting  instances  of  a  degradation  traced 
to  have  taken  place  in  tribes  formerly  of  greater  civilisation  and 
refinement,  are  adduced  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  in  his  "Recent 
Speculations  on  Primeval  Man"  (Lond.  1869),  directed  against 
Lubbock — particularly  the  case  of  the  Eskimo  in  the  North,  and 
the  Pesherahs,  or  inhabitants  of  the  Tierra  del  Fuego,  in  the 
South,  neither  of  which  tribes,  it  is  evident,  was  created  in  i-ts  present 


400  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

inhospitable  place  of  abode,  but  driven  thither  out  of  warmer 
regions,  and  entered  with  this  its  expulsion  upon  its  present  morally 
sunken  and  degraded  state.  The  same,  too,  is  to  be  said  of  the 
Bushmen,  the  Van  Diemenslanders,  Papuas,  etc.  (Further  in 
the  article  of  Zockler  on  "The  Lubbock-Argyll  Controversy,"  in 
the  Beweis  des  Glaubens,  1871,  S.  464  ff.)— The  North  American 
Indians  have  been  shown,  by  John  D.  Baldwin,  the  American 
archseologist,  to  be  a  deeply  degenerate  race,  forming  a  mournful 
contrast  with  their  ancestors  of  far  higher  civilisation,  the  Mound- 
builders  of  the  Ohio  valley.  {Ancient  America,  or  Notes  on  Ainerican 
Archeology,  New  York,  1872.)  With  him  is  also  in  substantial  agree- 
ment Albert  J.  Mott  (in  his  Lecture  on  the  Origin  of  Savage  Life, 
before  the  Liverpool  Liter,  and  Philol.  Soc,  6th  Oct.,  1873) ;  as  is 
Alf.  Russ.  Wallace  {Academy,  Jan.  17,  1874). 

On  the  part  of  the  theological  opponents  of  the  thesis  of  an 
original  irreligiousness  of  all  mankind,  and  of  the  continued  occur- 
rence of  absolutely  irreligious  tribes  (tribes  absolutely  devoid  of 
religion),  the  argument  here  under  review,  of  a  degradation  which 
has  ensued  in  the  course  of  historic  development,  is  generally  urged 
with  stronger  and  more  emphatic  accentuation  than  is  wont  to  be 
the  case  on  the  part  of  the  representatives  of  natural  science.  Yet 
even  as  regards  the  point  of  view  of  natural  science  compare  the 
works  before  cited  of  Quatrefages  and  Gerland  ;  also  Alb.  Wigand  : 
Der  Darwinismus  und  die  Naturforshung  Newtons  tind  Oiviers, 
i.  337  ff.  We  refer  the  reader  in  general  to  Luthardt :  Apologetic 
Lectures  ;  Liiken,  Die  Traditionen,  etc.  (S.  3  ff.) ;  Rauch,  Die  Einheit 
des  Menschejigeschlechts  (S.  57  f);  Delitzsch,  System  der  Apologetik, 
1869  (S.  51  ff.) ;  Zollmann,  Bibel  tmd  Natiir  (223,  230  ff);  Baum- 
stark,  Apologetik  (i.  176  ff,  248  ff.,  266  f.) ;  M'Cosh,  CJiristia7iity 
and  Positivism,  New  York,  187 1  (p.  138  f);  J.  Ch.  Scholl,  D Islam 
ct  son  Fondateur,  Paris  and  Neuchatel,  1874  (p.  286). — Among  the 
more  recent  philosophic  opponents  of  the  proposition  of  which  we 
have  been  treating,  we  may  specially  mention  Ulrici  {Gott  und  die 
Natur,  2nd  edn.,  1867,  S.  758  ff.,  as  also  Gott  und  der  Mensch,  ii., 
S.  427),  Carriere  {Die  Ktmst,  etc.,  Bd.  i.,  1863,  S.  46  ff,  107  i.)^ 
J.  B.  Meyer,  as  before,  Froschammer  {Einleitung  in  d.  Philos.,  etc., 
1858,  S.  220  ff  ;  das  Christenthum  und  die  moderne  Naturivissenschaft, 
1868,  S.  317  ff.),  K.  Chr.  Planck  {I.e.,  S.  162  ff. ;  200  ff.),  Joh.  . 
Huber  ("  Ethnographische  Berichtungen  " — extra  sheet  to  the  Augsb. 
Allg.  Ztg.  1873,  No.  126).  The  last-named  article,  a  rejoinder  to 
the   contesting   of    the   universality   of   religious    ideas,   previously 


APPENDIX.  40 1 

attempted  on  the  part  of  Moritz  Wagner  in  the  same  journal,  is 
very  instructive.  He  convicts  the  learned  traveller  of  a  want  of 
independence  and  reliance  in  his  judgment  upon  the  one-sided 
representation  of  Sir  John  Lubbock  in  the  "  Prehistoric  Times," 
etc.,  as  also  of  various  minor  errors  in  details.  With  regard  to 
almost  all  the  tribes  claimed  by  Wagner  as  devoid  of  religion,  he 
shows,  generally  as  a  result  of  a  closer  inspection  of  the  sources, 
cited  indeed  by  Wagner,  but  not  by  him  examined  with  sufficient 
exactness,  that  they  are  in  truth  by  no  means  destitute  of  all  traces  of 
religious  conceptions  :  thus,  with  regard  to  the  Eskimo,  the  Indians 
of  the  Amazon  and  the  Abiponians,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Tierra 
del  Fuego,  the  Bari  negroes  and  other  Central  African  tribes,  the 
Bushmen,  etc. — While  the  theologians  lay  special  emphasis  upon 
the  element  of  the  degradation,  these  their  philosophic  allies  lay 
the  main  stress  upon  the  absolute  universality  of  this  basis  of  reli- 
gious thought  (yAnlage).  While,  for  the  former,  the  imperfect  traces 
of  religiousness  in  the  consciousness  of  the  rudest  tribes  appear  as 
poor  remains  of  the  primary  condition  of  bearing  the  image  of  God, 
now  lost  or  intentionally  destroyed,  as  obscure  reminiscences  of  a 
former  Paradisiac  communion  with  God,  they  appear  for  the  latter  as 
significant  germs  of  a  higher  capacity  for  development,  pointing  to  a 
specifically  supramaterial  essence  in  mankind.  In  the  repelling  of 
the  assertion  of  the  materialists  that  mankind  has  its  origin  in  the 
beasts,  both  concur.  In  this  fact  lies  also  that  which  serves  as 
foundation  and  support  to  the  position,  taken  by  us  in  the  text,  of 
a  connection  of  the  pre-Christian  cross  symbols  and  practices  with 
regard  to  crucifixion  with  the  primary  religious  consciousness  of 
mankind. 


V. 

Is    IT   POSSIBLE   THAT   ChRIST  WAS  CRUCIFIED   UPON  A  THREE-ARMED 

Cross  (  "T  )  ? 
(To  p.  68.) 

The  opinion  that  the  Roman  cross  of  punishment,  at  about  the 
beginning  of  the  Imperial  Age,  was  a  crux  commissa,  formed  like 
a  T ;  that  thus  Christ  too  suffered  upon  such  T-shaped  or  three- 

26 


402  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

armed  cross — as  this  form  is  frequently  displayed  in  earlier  pictorial 
representations  of  the  crucifixion,  especially  of  the  Flemish  and 
Cologne  school  of  painting,  as  also  on  the  well-known  altarpiece  of 
Luc.  Cranach  at  Weimar  (of  the  year  1553),  and  at  a  still  earlier 
period  the  so-called  Lothar  cross,  a  peculiarly  elaborated  metal 
crucifix  of  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century,  in  the  treasury  of  the 
Aachen  cathedral  (Stockbauer,  p.  256) — has  already  been  subjected  to 
a  more  exact  test  by  J.  Lipsius,  vol.  i.,  capp.  8 — 10,  of  his  monograph 
De  Cruce,  which  closes  with  the  result  that  the  supposition  of  the 
crucifixion  of  the  Lord  on  a  four-armed  cross  (crux  immissa)  has 
better  evidence,  and  in  general  a  stronger  degree  of  probability  in  its 
favour ;  especially  since — even  if  the  cross  of  the  Saviour  had  been  a 
three-armed  one— the  form  of  a  crux  immissa  with  four  ends  or  arms 
must  result  from  the  placing  of  the  title  (Matt.  xxvi.  37,  and  parallels) 
above  His  head.  {Ed.  VesaL,  1675,  p.  47  :  Tamen  sunt  qui  de  com- 
missi seu  de  Tau  forma  contendunt ;  nee  damno,  etsi  dissideo :  quia 
et  iUi  si  titulum  superne  addis,  efificere  atque  imaginari  possis  quaternos 
istos  fines.") — The  question  even  in  the  present  day  in  reality  still 
■shapes  itself  essentially  after  this  fashion.  Some  expositors  or 
biblical  archaeologists  have  even  recently  defended  the  T  shape  of 
the  cross  of  Calvary,  e.g.,  Winer  {Reahv.,  art.  "  Kreuzigung  "),  Keim, 
in  his  "  Geschichte  Jesu  von  Nazara,"  Bd.  iii.,  S.  413  f,  and  in 
the  smaller  edition  of  the  same  work  (Zurich,  1873),  S.  340,  as  well 
as  Grundt,  art.  "  Kreuz,"  in  Schenkel's  Bibel-Lexik.;  comp.  also 
Tholuck,  "Die  Kreuzigung,"  in  Piper's  Ev.  Xal.,  1861,  S.  70.  But 
that  which  is  advanced  by  them  is  altogether  insufficient  to  invalidate 
the  very  weighty  and  numerous  considerations  in  favour  of  the  four- 
armed  cross,  presented  specially  by  Zestermann,  i.  27  ff.,  36  ff.,  with 
the  approval  of  Stockbauer,  Degen,  and  others.  Although  even  that 
which  is  maintained  in  favour  of  its  four-armed  construction  cannot  be 
termed  right  off  demonstratively  (apodictically)  certain,  and  removed 
beyond  the  possibility  of  all  further  doubt. 

For  the  ihree-<ixmQ6.  construction,  or  T  form,  have  been  adduced : 
I.  Various  expressions  of  Church  Fathers,  who  understand  the 
Greek  letter  T,  ordinarily  inasmuch  as  a  numeral  it  denotes  the 
number  300,  as  a  typico-symbolic  equivalent  (or  hieroglyphic)  of 
the  cross  of  Christ.  So  Barnab.,  Ep.,  c.  9  extr.,  where  the  number 
of  Abraham's  servants,  318,  expressed  by  the  letter-signs  IHT,  is 
explained  as  a  type  of  Jesus  and  His  cross  ('Iiyo-oi)?,  o-raupos) ;  so 
further  Clem.  Alex.,  Strom.,  vi.,  4, 1 1 ;  Ambrose,  Defide  ad  Grat.,  i.  3 ; 
Augustine,  Senn.  108  de  temp.;  Paulinus,  Ep.  xxiv.  23,  and  other 


APPENDIX.  403 

places,  in  which  sometimes  this  very  interpretation  of  the  318  servants 
of  Abraham  is  repeated,  sometimes  a  mystic-prophetic  sense  having 
reference  to  the  cross  appears  to  be  attached  to  the  300  warriors  of 
Gideon,  the  victor  over  the  Midianites,  and  even  to  the  300  cubits' 
length  which,  according  to  Gen.  vi.  15,  the  delivering  ark  of  Noah  was 
to  receive;  thus  finally  also  TertulL,  adv.  Marc,  iii.  22;  Origen,  Horn, 
in  Ezech.,  ix.  4,  where  the  Tau  inscribed  upon  the  foreheads,  in  the  well- 
known  passage  of  Ezekiel,  is  understood  as  a  prophecy  having  reference 
to  the  Crucified  One.*^ — No  one  of  these  patristic  utterances,  however, 
speaks  of  more  than  a  mere  resemblance  of  the  sign  T  to  the  cross 
(Tertull,  species  crucis  ;  Paulinus,  figura  crucis ;  Augustine,  simi- 
litiido  crucis ;  Clem.  Alex.,  tv-ko^  tov  KvpcaKov  o-q/xeLov),  or  that  it 
prophetically  denoted  the  cross.  There  is  nothing,  however,  in  their 
statements  to  lead  to  the  supposition  that  the  cross  was  exactly  repre- 
sented by  the  T,  any  more  than  those  familiar  parallelisings  of  the 
cross  of  Christ  with  the  wood  borne  by  Isaac  to  the  place  of  sacrifice, 
or  with  the  staff  of  Moses,  or  with  the  rod  of  David,  or  with  the  wood 
of  Ehsha  (2  Kings  vi.  i- — 7),  etc.,  are  intended  to  indicate  anything  of 
an  accurate  nature  concerning  the  form  of  the  cross  on  Calvary. 

2.  The  humorous  remark  of  Lucian  in  his  Aik?;  (jiwvrjevrwv  (i.  61), 
above  mentioned  in  the  text,  p.  67,  which,  as  being  based  upon 
the  generally  acknowledged  and  widespread  form  of  the  T,  certainly 
affords  a  somewhat  greater  degree  of  probability  in  favour  of  a  general 
distribution  of  the  three-armed  cross  in  the  imperial  age  of  .Rome, 
than  do  those  patristic  citations. 

3.  The  expressions  of  Seneca,  Consol.  ad  Jlfarc,  20,  and  Josephus, 
B.  y^.,  v.  II,  §  I,  likewise  already  treated  of  by  us,  which  testify  in 
general  to  a  diversity  of  forms  in  the  ancient  instruments  of  execution 
and  of  torture,  thus  of  cruces  in  the  wider  sense ;  but  thereby  certainly 
afford  us  no  information  of  a  more  special  kind  in  favour  of  the  T 
form  as  a  particularly  favourite  or  prevalent  one. 

4.  An  indication  of  Paulinus  of  Nola  in  No.  27  of  his  poems, 
according  to  which  the  Christian  painting  of  the  first  centuries  was 
wont  to  depict  the  cross  of  Christ  mainly  in  one  of  two  ways  :  as  a 

P 
Jive-ended  figure  with  several  stems,  in  the  monogram  of  Christ  ^/"j 

or  as  a  two-ended  ("double-horned"),  one-stemmed  figure  in  the  cross 

'  [Gesen.  and  the  older  lexicographers  would  find  the  root  fav  in  I  Sam.  xxi.  13. 
But  the  reading  (from  /»/>/{)  followed  by  LXX.,  Vulg.,  and  (appar.)  Luther,  is  beyond 
doubt  the  true  one.     Cp.  Thenius  in  /oc] 


404  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST, 

proper,  which  latter  again  may  either  resemble  the  mast  with  the  sail- 
yard    I  ,  or  else  the  Greek  letter  and  numeral  T. 


t 


'*  Forma  crucis  gemina  specie  componitur,  et  nunc 
Antennae  speciem  navalis  imagine  mali, 
Sive  notam  Grsecis  solitam  signare  trecentos 
Explicat  existens,  cum  stipite  figitur  uno, 
Quaque  cacumen  habet  transverse  vecte  jugatur." — (v.  612 — 616.) 

This    poetic   description  testifies  to  the  T   form    of   the    cross    as 
employed,    side    by    side    with    the      j      form,    in    the    Christian 


t 


iconography  and  painting  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries ;  for 
hardly  can  the  poet  intend  to  imply  in  a  less  exact  manner  that  the 
second  of  the  two  comparisons,  coupled  by  sive,  was  in  point  of  fact 
identical  with  the  first,  as  Zestermann  (i.  41)  seems  inclined  to 
suppose.  Paulinus  too  would  seem  (according  to  JVat.  FeL,  v.  660^ 
665  seq.)  to  have  hiniself  made  a  T-formed  golden  cross  as  a  lamp 
for  his  Church  of  St.  Felix  (see  above,  p.  193,  and  comp.  Muratori, 
Antiq.  Diss.,  xxi.)     But  on  the  question  whether  the  T  form  was  also 


employed,  along  with  the     |~  form,  as  a  Roman  instrument  of  execu- 
tion, no  kind  of  direct  information  is  to  be  gained  from  these  verses. 
5.  Some  instances  of  iconographic  representation  of  the  cross  of 
Christ,  furnished  by  De  Rossi  from  early  Christian  grave  inscriptions 


Tsign, 


in  which  it  is  represented  by  the  sign  T,  instead  of  the      sign,  which 

is  here  also  more  usual ;   so  upon  a  marble  slab  of  the  cemetery 
Callisto : 


upon  another ; 


IReTnE    in    PACE; 


A<I>POAICIC 


T 

Similarly  upon  a  tombstone  preserved  in  the  Vatican  museum  : 

AGAPIS   >|<  A 


APPENDIX.  405 

(Comp.  De  Rossi,  in  the  Bullet,  arch.  Christ.,  1863,  pp.  53,  82; 
Pitra,  "De  titul.  Christ.  Carthag.,"  in  the  Spicileg.  Solesm.,  iv., 
p.  527.) — That  of  which  Paulinus  testifies  in  those  verses  as  being 
an  early  Christian  art-custom,  is  directly  confirmed  by  these  inscrip- 
tions. But  here  again  the  T  cross  is  attested  by  these  monuments 
only  as  an  occasional  and  comparatively  rare  product  of  Christian 
art  or  iconography,  not  as  a  Roman  instrument  of  execution.  Comp, 
above  in  the  text,  Chap.  III.,  p.  124. 

6.  [Ernst  von  Bunsen,  Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes,  S.  215,  appeals  tc 
the  representation  of  the  heathen  caricaturist  (see  above,  p.  115). 
According  to  Bunsen,  "the  crucified  one  here  appears  bound  upon 
a  headless  or  Tau-cross,  the  feet  resting  upon  a  transverse  beam ; 
above  the  head,  not  as  a  prolofigation  of  the  cross,  is  to  be  seen  a 
perpendicular  rod,  to  which  the  accusation  was  affixed,  in  accordance 
with  a  custom  universally  prevalent." — In  the  footnote  he  refers  the 
reader  to  Dio  Cassius,  liv.  3 — a  passage  which  merely  says  of  a 
certain  slave  that  he  was  led  through  the  midst  of  the  ayopd, 
accompanied  by  a  written  declaration  of  the  cause  for  which  he  was 
to  be  executed,  and  after  that  was  crucified.  It  contains  no  refer- 
ence to  the  upright  rod  in  question.] 

More  than  a  certain  distant  possibility  of  the  three-armed  form  of 
the  cross  of  Christ  cannot  be  shown  from  all  this.  The  arguments, 
on  the  other  hand,  for  its  four-armed  shape  are  weightier  and  of  a 
more  convincing  character. 

I.  As  an  instance  of  a  biblical-exegetical  kind  may  be  adduced 
the  superscription  over  the  head  of  the  Crucified,  expressly  attested 
by  all  four  Evangelists  (titA.os,  John  xix.  19;  airta.  Matt,  xxvii. 
37  ;  cTTtypa^iy,  Luke  xxiii.  38 ;  eVtypa^-^  t-^s  airtas,  Mark  xv.  26). 
This  might  certainly  be  affixed  to  the  transverse  beam  of  a  T  cross — 

though  hardly,  indeed,  without  then  giving  it  the  appearance  of  a  "T" 

(see  above).  Yet  more  naturally  should  we  be  led  to  suppose  that 
the  upper  end  of  the  long  beam  of  a  four-armed  cross,  where  it  rises 
above  the  transverse  beam,  was  regularly  employed  for  the  affixing 
of  this  superscription.  If  the  latter  was  placed  upon  a  small  board 
(o-avi's,  Socrat,  H.  E.,  i.  17  ^  Triva^,  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  v.  i.  44),  or  upon 
a  tablet  whitened  with  plaster  or  chalk  (Aeww/Aa,  Sozom.,  H.  £., 
i.  17  ;  XevKT]  cravts,  Niceph.  Callisti,  comp.  Etym.  mag.  and  Suidas), 
then  it  was  unquestionably  identical  with  the  inscribed  tablet  [the 
Schuld-Tafel  of  Bunsen,  as  above],  which  the  cruciarius  had,  accord 
ing  to  the  prevalent  custom,  to  bear  suspended  from  his  neck  to 


406  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

the  place  of  execution.  (Comp.  further  Suetonius,  Domit.  lo  ;  Dio 
Cassius,  liv.  3.)  And  precisely  in  this  case  would  it  be  most  natural 
to  hang  the  same  cord — by  which  this  tablet  had  before  been  fastened 
round  the  neck  of  the  malefactor — after  his  being  nailed  to  the  cross^ 
upon  the  upper  beam  of  the  cross  which  rises  above  the  transverse 
arms. 

2.  A  series  of  Patristic  testimonies  distinctly  and  unequivocally 
represents  the  cross  of  Christ  as  four-armed,  having  four  ends  or 
"horns"  pointing  to  the  four  points  of  the  compass.  These  testi- 
monies divide  themselves  into  two  categories  : 

{a)  Indirect  ox  figurative  descriptions,  based  on  certain  resemblances 
to  things  which  present  the  form  of  a  four-armed  cross ;  e.g.,  a  mast 
of  a  ship,  a  man  with  outspread  arms,  the  praying  Moses  (Exod.  xvii.), 
the  vexillum,  the  Paschal  lamb  roasted  on  a  spit,  etc.  So  Justin, 
ApoL,  i.  55  ;  Tertull.,  ad  Nation.,  i.  12  ;  comp.  also  TertuU.,  Apolog., 
12,  where,  moreover  (as,  too,  in  Minuc.  Felix,  Octav.,  29),  the  inner 
frames  of  the  models  for  the  statues  of  the  gods,  the  trophies  and 
military  banners  are  compared  to  crosses  ;  so  also  pseudo-Jerome, 
Comm.  in  Marc,  c.  xv.,  where,  too,  the  bird  cleaving  the  air,  and  the 
man  or  fish  swimming  through  the  water,  are  added  to  these  com- 
parisons. Under  this  head,  too,  fall  the  expositions  of  the  apostolic 
words,  "  that  ye  may  be  able  to  comprehend  with  all  saints  what  is 
the  breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,  and  height"  (Ephes.  iii.  18), 
which  is  explained  as  a  reference  to  the  cross,  on  the  part  of  Gregory 
of  Nyssa,  Or.  I.  in  Res.  Dom.  ;  pseudo-Jerome,  /.  c.  ;  Ambrose, 
Senn.  56  ;  and  Augustine,  Comm.  in  Fs.  103  ;  Tractat.  118  in  Joann.; 
Ep.  120,  etc.     Comp.  Appendix  VII. 

ib)  More  direct  descriptions,  which,  even  though  proceeding  from 
comparison  with  objects  of  nature  or  products  of  art,  yet  bring  into 
prominence  the  four-armed  conformation  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  not 
merely  by  way  of  allusion,  but  also  in  circumstantial,  distinct  delinea- 
tion, generally  indeed  conceiving  of  the  resting-block,  or  sedile,  fixed 
to  the  lower  part  of  the  long  beam  as  a  fifth  end  or  "  horn."  So 
Iren.,  adv.  hceres.,\\.  24,  4:  "Habitus  crucis  fines  et  summitates  habet 
quinque,  duos  in  longitudine,  duos  in  latitudine,  et  unum  in  medio, 
in  quo  requiescit,  qui  clavis  affigitur."  In  like  manner,  Justin,  Dial, 
cum  Tryph.,  c.  91,  where  the  comparison  is  with  the  unicorn,  and  the 
horn  of  this  animal  is  parallelised  with  the  upper  end  of  the  long 
beam,  rising  above  the  transverse  arms;  Tertull.,  adv.  Jud.,  c.  10 
(where,  in  like  manner,  that  form  of  comparison  is  made  use  of) ; 
[Apollinarius  of  Hierapolis  (cent.  2),  as  cited  in  the  Chron.  Paschale, 


APPENDIX.  407 

p.  5,  "  upon  the  horns  of  the  unicorn."]  Firmicus  Maternus,  De  ejTore 
frofanarum  religg.,  c.  22  ;  and  pseudo-Cyprian  (or  Victorinus),  in  his 
Hymn,  de  Pascha.  : 

"  Arboris  hsec  species  uno  de  stipite  surgit 
Et  mox  in  geminos  exlendit  brachia  ramos, 
Sicut  plena  graves  antennse  carbasa  tendnnt 
Vel  cum  disjunctis  juga  stant  ad  aratra  juvencis." 

3.  Two  testimonies  of  later  Fathers  absolutely  exclude  the  T 
form  :  they  admit  only  that  cross  to  be  a  faithful  representation 
of  the  cross  of  Christ,  in  which  the  long  beam  rises  above  the 
transverse  beam.  Gregory  the  Great,  Moral,  in  Job.,  c.  39  {0pp.  i., 
p.  990  c)  says,  "  Notandum  vero  est,  quia  iste  trecentorum  numerus 
in  litera  T  continetur,  quae  crucis  speciem  tenet ;  aii  si  super  trans- 
versam  lineam  id,  quod  in  cruce  eminet,  adderetur,  non  jam  crucis  species, 
sed  ipsa  crux  esset."  Almost  verbally  the  same  Isidore  of  Seville, 
Comni.  in  Judic,  c.  5. 

From  these  testimonies  results  at  least  the  following  consideration, 
that  the  sphere  of  conception  of  the  Fathers  was  dominated  almost 


exclusively  by  the 


form  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  as  established  by 


Christian  tradition ;  and  that  from  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great 
the  T  form  was  no  longer  recognised  side  by  side  with  it,  as  was  still 
the  case  in  that  poem  by  Paulinus  of  Nola.  An  absolutely  certain 
decision  in  the  question,  whether  the  cross  of  Christ  can  really  have 
been  of  no  other  form  than  such  four-armed  one,  does  not  indeed 
result  from  this  consensus  patrum,  of  however  great  importance  this 
may  appear.  For  the  force  of  the  biblical  testimonies,  adduced  under 
No.  I,  is  in  no  case  entirely  irresistible;  and  no  one  of  the  Fathers 
mentioned,  not  even  those  belonging  to  the  second  century — pseudo- 
Barnabus,  Justin,  Irenseus,  etc. — stood  so  near  to  the  events  of 
the  Passion,  or  derived  his  knowledge  from  such  clear  and  direct 
evidence  of  eye-witnesses,  as  to  exclude  all  possibility  of  doubt 
regarding  the  trustworthiness  of  any  part  of  their  statements. 

If  Zestermann  (i.  27  ff. ;  ii.  7  ff.)  proceeds  further,  and  main- 
tains generally  that  among  all  civilised  nations  of  the  first  century 
before  Christ  exclusively  four-armed  crosses  were  in  use  —  thus 
seeking  to  cut  off  all  possibility  of  an  execution  of  Christ  upon 
a  crux  commissa — he  seems  to  us  to  attempt  to  prove  too  much, 
and  on  that  account  to  prove  ?iothing  with  certainty.  It  may  be 
the  expressions  crux  and  patibuluni   in   the  Roman  authors   fron? 


408  THE    CROSS    OF   CHRIST. 

the  time  of  Cicero  regularly  denote  the  four-armed  cross ;  but 
we  cannot  at  least  deduce  from  the  fact  that  Curtius  makes  use 
of  the  expression  "  crucibus  affigere "  in  speaking  of  Alexander's 
execution  of  2,000  Tyrians,  or  that  Justin  represents  the  Egyptian 
rebels  {circ.  B.C.  200)  as  crucifying,  "patibulis  suffigere,"  the  volup- 
tuous royal  wives  (Curt,  iv.  4,  17 ;  Justin,  30,  2),  that  these 
writers  "  could  ?iot  be  thinking  of  any  other  instrument  of  execution 
than  the  four-armed  cross."  [Although  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
how  the  term  suffigzxt,  so  frequently  employed  by  Cicero  and  others 
in  connection  with  the  cross,  could  properly  be  used  in  speaking 
of  execution  upon  a  T  cross.]  Even  if  these  and  other  Roman 
authors  of  the  silver  age,  or  an  age  yet  later,  were  not  able  to 
conceive  of  any  other  than  the  four-armed  cross  as  employed 
on  such  occasions,  yet  nothing  follows  from  this  with  regard  to 
the  modes  of  crucifixion  actually  practised  among  those  pre-Roman 
or  extra-Roman  peoples.  Equally  as  the  Scythians,  Assyrians, 
Persians,  etc.,  might — according  to  the  more  or  less  indistinct 
evidence  of  an  Herodotus  and  other  ancient  classics — make  use 
either  of  upright  posts,  or  of  three-armed  or  four-armed  crosses 
(and  Zestermann,  as  above,  himself  admits  that  we  can  attain  to 
no  degree  of  certainty,  with  regard  to  these  earlier  nations,  in 
determining  the  form  of  their  instruments  of  death),  so  also  may 
a  diversity  in  the  form  of  the  cross  be  claimed  in  the  case  of  the 
Macedonians,  the  Egyptians  of  the  Ptolemaic  age,  the  Syrocusans, 
etc. ;  the  more  so,  since  the  oft-cited  utterances  of  a  Seneca 
and  a  Josephus  attest  even  for  the  beginning  of  the  Roman 
imperial  age  the  occasional  employment  of  "  cruces  non  unius 
generis,  sed  aliter  ab  aliis  fabricate. "  (^) — In  all  this,  indeed,  the 
conclusion  of  the  authority  to  whom  we  have  already  often  had 
occasion  to  refer,  Lipsius  (with  his  predecessors,  e.g.,  already 
J.  Scaliger,  in  the  Thesaur.,  temp.  1658;  and,  in  recent  times,  De 
Rossi,  in  Pitra,  Spicil.  Solesin.,  I.e.),  receives  its  justification;  since 

'  We  concur  generally  in  the  strictures  of  E.  Friedrich  (Bonn.  Theol.  Litbl., 
1875,  No.  17  ff.)  upon  Zestermann's  argt.  Only  this  scholar  appears  to  us  to 
err  in  maintaining  that  ffravpds  in  earlier  Greek  had  o/i/y  the  signification  of 
stake,  while  he  claims  for  the  Latin  crux  the  original  signification  ontj/  of  cross 
in  the  narrower  sense  :  stake  with  transverse  beam  upon  it.  For  us  at  least,  so 
far  as  crux  is  concerned,  the  derivation  we  have  before  given,  from  5ram,  "dolore 
vexari, "  appears  to  be  the  only  admissible  one.  And  for  that  wider  sense  of  crux, 
according  to  which  the  pointed  stake  (pale),  the  furca,  and  other  instruments  of 
torture,  can  be  denoted  by  it,  Seneca,  Consol.  ad  Marc,  20,  gives  an  unequivocal 
testimony,  the  force  of  which   Friedrich  vainly  seeks  to   set  aside.    [For  the 


APPENDIX.  409 

he  had  mentioned  the  three  forms,  of  the  crux  immissa,  commissa, 
and  decussata,  as  forms  of  the  Roman  judicial  cross  alleged  to 
coexist  with  each  other :  of  the  last-named  form,  however,  he 
entirely  disposed,  and  limited  the  second  to  a  minimum  of  use, 
nay  represented  its  employment  as  nowhere  traceable  with  perfect 
certainty.  ///  this  way,  accordingly,  the  employmeftt  of  the  crux 
IMMISSA,  as  by  far  the  most  generally  prevaleiit  7nain  form  of  this 
instrument  of  execution  in  the  Romaji  empire  about  the  time  of  the 
rise  of  our  religion,  appears  to  be  proven. 


VI. 

The  single  External  Circumstances  and  Proceedings  in  the 

Work  of  Crucifixion. 

(Top.  93ff.) 

As  regards  the  details  of  the  matters  now  falling  under  examination, 
we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  well-known  works  of  Justus  Lipsius 
(with  his  supplementers,  Salmasius,  Bartholinus,  Nihusius,  Cur- 
Tius,  etc.),  Gretser  {De  cruce,  lib.  i.),  Merillius  {Not(z  philoll. 
in  pass.  Christi,  Roterodami,  1693),  Byn^us  {De  morte  Christi, 
lib.  iii.,  287  sqq.),  Kipping  {De  cruce  et  cruciariis,  17),  Jahn 
{Archiiologie,  ii.  2,  369  ff.),  Friedlieb  {Archdologie  der  Leidens- 
geschichte,  1843),  Langen  {Die  letzten  Lebenstage  yesu,  1864), 
Steinmeyer  {Die  Leidensgeschichte  des  Herrn,  etc.,  1868),  Keim 
{Geschichte  Jesji  von  Nazara,  iii.  290  ff.),  Zestermann,  Degen, 
Friedrich,  etc.  We  give,  for  the  complementing  of  that  which 
has  been  remarked  in  the  text,  a  brief  notice  of  the  principal 
acts  belonging  to  the  infliction  of  the  punishment  of  the  cross 
in  the  order  of  their  succession  ;  and  in  doing  so'  we  direct  our 
attention  mainly  to  the  literary  controversies  regarding  the  more 
obscure  and  difficult  questions. 

author's  derivation  of  crzix,  as  also  for  the  probability  of  its  having  a  Celtic 
origin,  see  p.  53,  note.  According  to  Bunsen,  /.  c,  S.  84,  note  ',  the  signification 
alike  of  staurds  and  crux  is  "  Scheiterhaufen  ;"  but  this  meaning  resolves  itself 
into  that  of  "stake,"  as  above:  unless  (as  would  appear  to  be  the  case)  he 
intends  to  include  the  signification  of  funeral  pile.  The  funeral  pile,  hovv'ever, 
was  not  called  staurds  or  crux,  but  pyre  or  rogus.  The  Celtic  root  CROC  (or 
Crog)  appears  most  distinctly  in  the  Italian  form  croce.  The  noun  croes,  on  the 
other  hand,  may  be  a  derivative  from  crux. — Tr.] 


410  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

The  Roman  mode  of  proceeding — alone  of  interest  for  the 
single  incidents  of  the  Gospel  history  of  the  Passion — included 
the  following  successive  acts  : 

1.  The  scotirging  or  beating  tuith  rods,  at  once  inflicted  as  a 
matter  of  course,  after  the  passing  of  the  sentence,  by  way  of 
introduction  to  any  form  of  execution  whatever  (Valer.,  Max.  i, 
I,  6;  Dion.  Hal.,  ix.  48);  in  the  case  of  slaves,  with  scourges 
(flagellis),  thus  as  flagellatio  strictly  so  called,  in  the  case  of  free 
men,  with  rods  (virgis,  fustibus)  :  vid.  Dig.,  xlviii.  19,  10:  "Ex 
quibus  causis  liber  fustibus  c^editur,  ex  his  servus  flagellis  csedi 
jubetur."  The  person  who  was  to  be  scourged  was  deprived  of  his 
upper  clothing  and  bound  to  a  post  or  pillar,  such  as  existed  at 
every  appointed  place  of  judgment,  of  which  too  some  were  wont 
to  be  set  up  in  camps  in  front  of  the  praetorium.      Comp.  Plaut., 

Bacch.,  iv.  6,  24  : 

"  Abducite  hunc 
Intro  atque  adstringite  ad  columnam  fortiter,"  etc.  ; 

also  Cic,  Verr.,  v.  5,  10  ;  /.  Rab.  iv.,  13;  Li  v.,  viii.  7  ;  Gell.,  Nod. 
Atf.,  X.  13,  etc.  ^rhe  order  for  the  scourging  was  given  by  the 
judge  in  the  words  "  I,  lictor,  deliga  ad  palura,"  ^  or  "  I,  lictor, 
coUiga  manus"  (Liv.  I.e.) 

2.  T/ie  journey  to  the  place  of  execution,  uniformly  accomplished 
amidst  numerous  outrages  inflicted  upon  the  condemned  by  the 
soldiers  who  were  to  act  as  executioners  (therefore ;  in  crucem 
rapere,  Cic,  Ve)-?:,  v.  64,  166  or,  ad  crucem  trahere,  etc.),  was 
moreover  for  the  sake  of  greater  contumely  directed  through  the 
most  populous  streets  and  squares  (Dio  Cass.,  liv.  3).  The 
delinquent  appears  regularly  to  have  been  led  bound  to  the  cross 
(Chariton,  iv.  2,  p.  66,  d'Orville-Reiske),  his  offence  being  pro- 
claimed by  a  herald  going  before,  or  by  the  bearing  in  front  of 
him  of  a  tablet  inscribed  with  the  cause  of  the  execution  (Lamprid., 
Alex.  Sev.,  22,  35),  or  even  by  the  malefactor  himself  bearing  this 
ama  or  rtVAos,  causa,  titulus  {jriva^,  cravL<;, — see  abov'e,  Append.  V., 
p.  405)  suspended  from  his  neck  (Suet.,  Calig,  22  ;  Domit.,  10;  Dio 
Cass.,  liv.  3  ;  Euseb.,  If.  E.,  v.  i,  44.) — On  the  bearing  of  the  cross  by 
the  condemned,  see  above,  p.  93,  note  ^ 

3.  The  setting  up  of  the  cross  upon  the  place  of  execution,  regu- 
larly situated  outside  the  gate  of  the  camp  or  city  (PXzwt,  Miles  Glor., 
ii.  4),  ordinarily  upon  a  hill  or  eminence  visible  from  afar,  took  place 

'  [In  this  sense,  too,  not  in  that  of  binding  upon  a  cross  of  execution,  is  to  be 
understood,  e.g.,  the  aravpc^i  wposST^cras  of  Dio  Cass.,  xlix.  22.  j 


APPENDIX.  411 

according  to  the  earlier  practice  at  executions  beforehand,  so  that  the 
cross  (with  or  without  the  transverse  beam)  was  already  standing  there 
when  the  cruciarius  arrived:  vid.  Cic,  Verr.,  v.  66,  169;  /.  Rab.,  4. 
Later,  however,  this  was  done  only  immediately  before  the  execution, 
as  is  shown  by  the  phrases  o-Tavpo's  Tr-qyvvraL  (Plut.,  Tu.,  c.  9), 
KaTa-n-qyvvvai  (Travpov  (Joseph.,  B.  y.,  vii.  6,  §  4),  crucem  ponere 
(Juven.,  6,  221).  As  regards  the  necessary  fixing  with  pegs,  comp. 
Herod.,  ix.  120:  o-artSa  TrposTracro-aXeveti'.  If  the  cross  had  a  con- 
siderable height,  as  was  the  case  with  that  of  transgressors  of  rank, 
and  in  other  single  instances  (e.g.,  in  that  of  Cartalo,  Justin  18,  7; 
cp.  Justin  22,  7;  Suetonius,  Galba,();  Artemidorus,  i.  76;  ii.  53, 
102  ;  as  in  that  of  Haman,  Esther  v.  14),  the  pegs  driven  in  at 
the  foot  were  not  of  course  sufficient ;  it  needed  then  other  special 
supports.  For  the  lowness  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  testifies  the  stem  of 
hyssop  (John  xix.  29). — A  standing  cross  of  execution,  or  gallows, 
appears  to  have  been  only  exceptional  with  the  Romans  :  comp.,  e.g., 
Polyb.,  i.  86,  6  ;  Diodor.,  xxv.  5,  2.  As  a  rule,  every  cross  was  an 
individual  instrument  of  death,  to  be  dragged  by  the  malefactor  con- 
demned to  it  to  the  place  of  execution,  there  to  stand  until  the  body 
hanging  thereupon  had  fallen  to  pieces  (Hon,  Ep.  i.  16,  48:  "  Non 
pasces  in  cruce  corvos  ;  "  \jiC2in.,  Pharsal.,  v\.  543;  Prudent,  Pe^m/., 
xi.  67  ;  Cic,  Tiisc,  i.  43);  or,  according  to  the  milder  custom  often 
practised  from  the  time  of  Augustus,  until  the  body  was  given  up  to 
the  relatives  of  the  deceased  for  sepulture,  and  the  cross  thus  left 
bare  was  then  cut  down.  (Quintil.,  DecL,  6,  9  :  "  Cruces  succiduntur, 
percusses  sepeliri  non  vetat;"  comp.  Dig.  xlviii.  24,  i.) 

4.  The  divesting  of  the  person  to  be  crucified  of  his  garments,  then 
the  nailing  of  him  naked  to  the  cross,  was  an  almost  universal  rule. 
See  the  remark  of  Artemidorus,  already  adduced  in  the  text  (p.  96, 
note  ^),  as  well  as  the  direct  testimony  of  the  Evangelists:  Matt, 
xxvii.  35,  and  parallels.  That  which  is  told  us  about  Cartalo's  cruci- 
fixion in  full  priestly  attire  (Justin,  xviii.  7),  seems  to  have  been  an 
exceptional  case,  brought  about  by  special  circumstances  ;  and  equally 
so  that  which  Tacitus  relates  [Hist.,  iv.  3)  with  regard  to  a  slave 
of  Vitellius.  If  the  well-known  cross  of  mockery  of  the  palace  of 
Alexander  Severus  [222 — 235]  bears  a  figure  clothed  with  a  short 
tunic  or  frock,  it  may  certainly  be  inferred  therefrom  that  slaves,  for 
instance,  whose  garments  at  any  rate  had  no  particular  value,  often 
escaped  being  nailed  naked  to  the  cross.  (Comp.  Becker,  Das  Spott- 
criuifix  in  den  Rom.  Kaiserpaldsten,  1863,  S.  38  ff.)  But  directly 
attested   in   the   classics   is   neither  this  custom,  nor  the   practice 


412  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

assumed  to  exist  by  Langen  (/.  c,  p.  304),  according  to  which  at 
least  a  cloth  around  the  loins  was  regularly  left  to  the  crucified  for 
the  covering  of  his  body.  See,  against  this  supposition,  Zestermann, 
ii.  34. 

5.  The  lifting  np  (drawing  up)  to  the  cross. — The  affixing  of  the 
person  to  be  crucified  regularly  took  place  upon  the  cross  already 
erected,  not — as  is  represented  in  earlier  and  later  paintings,  e.g.,  the 
renowned  crucifixion  scene  of  Rubens  at  Antwerp,  so  Kaulbach's 
"  Nero  "  (the  latter  with  reference  to  the  martyrdom  of  Peter) — upon 
the  cross  while  yet  lying  on  the  ground,  before  its  erection.  Against 
this  latter  supposition  see  already  Lipsius,  ii.  7.  Decisive  for  the 
fact  of  the  cruciarius  being  lifted  up  to  the  cross  (whether  as  already 
attached  to  the  patibulum,  as  no  doubt  in  the  earlier  time  was  the 
case,  or  without  it,  as  was  certainly  the  prevalent  custom  from  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century  before  Christ)  are  the  expressions,  in 
crucem  tollere,  criicem  ascendere,  in  crucem  excurrere,  or  the  Greek 
ones  iTTi/SaLveiv  Tov  (rTavfjov,  ava/SaLveiv  im  tov  ctt.  Plaut.,  Mostell., 
V.  I,  12;  Cic,  Verr.,v.  6,  12;  v.  66,  169.  Chariton,  iv.  3,  5; 
V.  10,  6  ;  Josephus,  B.  J.,  vii.  6,  §  4 ;  Lucian,  Peregr.,  45  ;  the 
name  too  of  crucisalus,  "  cross-dancer,"  "  cross-leaper,"  which  the 
slave  Chrysalus  gives  himself  in  grim  jest,  Plaut.,  Bacch.,  ii.  3,  127. 
Even  XhTii  patibtduin  ascendere  in  Prudentius,  Pcristep/i.,  x.  641  ;  like- 
wise the  "  in  crucem  elevari  "  of  Augustine,  Tract.  3  in  yoann.,  as 
well  as  other  similar  passages  in  Church  Fathers  (Iren.,  ii.  24,  4 ; 
Justin,  Dial.,  c.  91),  have  a  certain  demonstrative  force  against  the 
hypothesis  of  an  attachment  to  a  prostrate  cross. — As  means  for  the 
raising  of  the  cruciarius,  already  Lipsius  supposed  the  use  of  ladders 
(B>e  cruce,  ii.  8,  note),  but,  in  addition  to  this,  in  special  cases  also  a 
drawing  up  with  ropes.  Both  methods  of  raising  may  indeed  have 
obtained  side  by  side  :  no  early  author  expressly  mentions  them, 
but  both  appear  so  natural,  and  so  much  what  we  might  expect, 
that  valid  objections  to  the  one  or  the  other  of  them  can  hardly  be 
raised.  The  passages  adduced  by  Marquardt  {Rom.  Alterth.,  v.  194) 
and  others  in  favour  of  the  supposition  of  a  drawing  up  with  ropes, 
namely,  Plin.,  H.  N.,  29,  4,  57  ;  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  v.  i,  p.  131 ;  Firmicus 
Matern.,  Astron.,  vi.  31,  fol.  179,  [Ignat.,  see  above,  p.  120,  n.  2]  are 
not  of  a  force  absolutely  demonstrative,  at  least  do  not  by  any  means 
exclude  the  occasional  use  of  ladders  too  in  cases  of  crucifixion. 
Moreover  the  words  of  Firm.  Mat.  :  "  patibulo  suffixus  in  crucem 
crudeliter  erigitur,"  are  critically  not  entirely  beyond  suspicion  as  to 
t  leir  genuineness ;  cp.  Zesterm.,  S.  39.     But  granted  these  passages 


APPENDIX.  4  I  3 

prove  with  sufficient  certainty  the  use  of  cords,  they  do  not  on  that 
account  deprive  of  their  clearness  those  other  passages  which  imply 
an  ascending  by  means  of  ladders,  to  which  category  belong  also 
in  particular  several  expressions  like  in  cruceni  exciirrere,  criicem 
ascendere,  avafSaiveiv  ctti  toi/  crravpov,  etc.  ;  comp.  especially  the 
remarkable  story  of  that  Chsereas  (in  Chariton,  iv.  3,  5),  who  has 
already  mounted  the  cross,  and  is  about  to  be  nailed  to  it,  when 
he  suddenly  receives  a  pardon,  and  is  addressed  in  the  command 
KaTa/SyjOi,  upon  which  he  ruefully  "comes  down,"  etc.  We  believe 
therefore  that  both  assertions  are  of  a  one-sided  kind :  that  to  the 
effect  that  ropes  exclusively  were  employed  in  raising  the  cruciai-ius 
(Salmasius,  Friedlieb,  Langen,  Marquardt,  Keim),  and  that  requiring 
ladders  for  absolutely  eveij  crucifixion  (Zesterm.,  Degen).  We  must 
fall  back  upon  the  thoroughly  intelligent  statement  of  the  case  on 
the  part  of  Lipsius  (iV^/.  ad  lib.,  ii.,  c.  8,  p.  210)— a  statement  which  is 
in  contradiction  with  no  hint  of  the  ancients, — "  Et  sane  de  scalis, 
apponere  eas  pgene  necessarium  videtur,  utique  ad  erectam  crucem. 
Quomodo  alias  subduxeris,  aut  fixeris  ?  Etiam  de  funibus  sunt  quce 
suadeant,"  etc.  (Comp.  also  the  two  illustrations  there  given,  of 
which  the  one  represents  a  cruciarius  as  drawn  up  with  ropes,  the 
other  as  being  taken  up  by  means  of  ladders.) 

6.  The  preparatory  fastening  by  mea?is  of  ropes  and  restitig-block. 
For  the  preparatory  attaching  of  the  person  raised  or  drawn  up  to 
the  cross,  there  were  at  any  rate  certain  ropes  employed ;  and  of 
these  ropes,  as  well  as  the  knots  tied  with  them,  some  passages  in  the 
Classics  and  Fathers  make  express  mention,  namely,  Lucan,  Phars., 
vi.  543  sq.  (the  Thessalian  enchantress  Erichtho  tears  asunder  the 
ropes  and  knots  of  the  crucified  ones  with  her  teeth);  Plin.,  Z^  iV!, 
28,  4,  II  (the  superstitious  bearing  about  as  a  charm  of  a  cord  or 
nail  of  one  who  had  been  crucified) ;  and  Hilar.  Pict,  De  Trijt., 
X.  13  ("  Sed  forte  penduli  in  cruce  corporis  poenge  et  colligantium 
funium  et  adactorum  clavorum  cruda  vulnera  sint  timori  !  Et 
videamus,  cujus  corporis  homo  Christus  sit,  ut  suspensa  et  nodosa  et 
transfossa  carne  dolor  manserit  ! " ) — Besides  these  ropes,  of  which 
at  least  those  attaching  the  breast  to  the  cross  must  have  remained 
after  the  nailing  of  the  hands  and  feet,  because  they  had  to  protect 
the  body  from  falling  forward,  there  also  served  for  the  prepara- 
tory fixing  of  the  body  the  sitting-block  (71-^7/^-0,  sedile),  that  ^^ffth 
projecting  end  "  of  the  four-ended  cross,  of  which  Irenaeus  makes 
mention,  Hcer.,  ii.  24,  4  ("  habitus  crucis  fines  et  summitates  habet 
quinque,  .  .  .  .  et   unum  in   medio,  in   quo   requiescit,  qui  clavis 


414  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

afifigitur  "),  which  Justin  Martyr,  Dial.,  c.  91,  compares  to  a  forth- 
springing  horn  on  which  the  crucified,  as  it  were,  rode  (Kai  to  iu  t(Z 
fxiao)  7r7]yvvfjievov  ws  Ke'pas  koL  avTO  i^€)(ov  icTTLv,  i(ji  w  iTro)(ovvTaL 
01  (rravpovfievoi) ;  comp.  also  TertuU.,  ad  Nation.,  i.  12  ("Sad 
nobis  tota  crux  imputatur,  cum  antenna  sciUcit  sua  et  cum  illo 
sediles  excessu " ),    as   well   as   that  relief  from   the  catacombs  at 

Rome,  (in    Miinter,  Sintibilder,    etc der   alien    Christen, 

ii.  Str.  28,)  which  confirms  by  the  evidence  of  the  monuments 
the  existence  of  this  sediie.  (See  also  Stockbauer,  /.  c,  p.  37).^ 
An  alleviation  of  the  painful  position  of  the  crucified  one  was  cer- 
tainly not  that  which  was  aimed  at  in  providing  this  resting-block — 
since  this  might  rather  contribute  to  increase  the  suffering  of  the 
slowly  dying  one — but  only  for  the  gaining  of  a  firmer  hold  before 
and  during  the  nailing,  as  Avell  as  to  prevent  a  falling  down  from  the 
heavy  weight  of  the  body. — Whether  lower  down  than  the  sediie,  or 
even  instead  thereof,  a  board  was  placed  for  the  feet  of  the  crucified 
{vTTOTTohov,  suppedaneum  ligniini),  was  a  question  pretty  warmly 
disputed  among  Christian  archaeologists  at  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Lipsius  (ii.  10,  p.  95  sqq.)  leaves  it  undecided 
whether  we  are  to  give  credit  to  the  statement  of  Gregory  of  Tours 
{De  glor.  martyr.,  c.  6)  touching  the  existence  of  such  a  footboard 
upon  the  cross  of  Christ.  Gretser  (i.  29)  defended  its  existence,  by 
an  appeal  to  those  passages  of  Justin,  Irenseus,  etc.,  which  he  sought 
to  interpret  of  the  alleged  hypopodium ;  as  well  as  to  ancient  Chris- 
tian paintings,  which  represent  the  feet  of  the  crucified  as  resting 
upon  such  board.  On  the  other  hand,  the  historical  character  of  the 
same  was  contested  by  Salmasius  {Aniniadi'erss.  in  Eiiscbii,  H.  M.), 
Jac.  Bosius  {De  cruce  triumphajite,  Antv.  161 7,  lib.  i.,  c.  6),  and 
Bartholinus  {De  cruce  hypomn.,  i.  28  sqq.,  54  sqq.),  against  which 
latter  writer  again  Barthold  Nihues  {Ep.  de  cruce  ad  Bartholin., 
p.  199  sqq.),  and  Cornelius  Curtius  {De  clavis  dominicis,  p.  228  sq.), 
contended  for  its  historical  character.  Since  Gregory  of  Tours 
(+  595)  is  in  reality  the  earliest  witness  for  the  hypopodium,  since, 
too,  Christian  art  is  acquainted  with  it  only  after  the  beginning  of 
the  seventh  century — comp.  the  two  representations  of  the  cruci- 
fixion given  by  Stockbauer  (p.  124  and  following  of  his  work),  of 
which  the  one,  belonging  to  the  year  586,  is  still  without  the  suppe- 

'  Friedrich,  /.  c.  [in  which  he  is  anticipated  by  Pearson,  Expos,  of  the  Creed, 
art.  iii.,  chap,  iv.,  p.  316,  of  Walford's  edn.],  seeks  to  interpret  also  the  expression 
acuta  crux,  in  Seneca,  Ep.  ci.,  of  the  sediie ;  whether  rightly  so,  appears  to  us 
doubtful. 


APPENDIX.  415 

daneitfn,  whereas  the  other,  of  an  origin  nearly  a  hundred  years  later, 
has  one — we  must  decidedly  range  ourselves  on  the  side  of  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  Gretser-Nihues  view.  Stockbauer  justly  remarks  (p.  39) 
that  the  suppedaneum  was  invented  after  art  had,  on  aesthetic  grounds, 
ceased  to  depict  the  sedile,  as  a  compensation,  in  order  that  one 
might  not  be  obliged  to  represent  the  body  of  the  crucified  in  a 
physiologically  and  mechanically  inconceivable  position.  It  was 
thus  "  merely  an  artifice,  in  order  to  give  to  the  crucified  body  a 
position  possible  to  the  eye." 

7,  The  nailing  to  the  cross.  That  the  preparatory  binding  to  the 
cross  with  cords  was  followed  by  a  nailing  thereto  is  attested  by  the 
expressions  affigere,  suffigere  cruci,  7rpo<;r]Xovv,  the  distinct  mention  of 
the  nail-prints  :  Luke  xxiv.  39,  John  xx.  20  (comp.  Iren.  ii.  24,  4  ; 
Paulinus  of  Nola,  Poem.,  24,  455) ;  also  by  the  fact  that  Xenophon  of 
Ephesus  (iv.  22)  speaks  of  the  Egyptian  mode  of  crucifixion,  con- 
sisting in  merely  binding  on  with  cords,  as  something  strange  and 
unwonted;  as  well  as  by  the  fact  that  the  poet  Ausonius  in  his 
Cupido  cruel  affixiis  (v.  56  sq.),  where  he  describes  the  binding  of  the 
god  of  love  to  a  myrtle-tree,  furnishes  similar  indirect  evidence  in 
favour  of  nailing  as  the  usual  mode  of  crucifixion.  ^ — On  the  exceed- 
ingly large  and  strong  beam  nails  {Hor.,  Carm.  i.  35;  Cic,  Verr.  v.  21), 
of  which  the  Romans  made  use  in  this  terrible  form  of  execution 
(see  above,  p.  93).  That  with  such  nails  (or  spikes)  not  only  the 
hands,  but  also  the  feet,  were  pierced,  these  last  thus  not  merely 
bound  with  cords  (as  was  assumed  by  Clericus,  on  "yohn  xx.  27; 
Dathe,  on  Psalm  xxii.  1 7  ;  Herder,  Von  Ammon,  and  with  special 
zeal  Paulus,  Memoi-ab.,  iv.  36;  Comm.  z.  d.  Pvangg.,  iii.  764  ff. ;  in 
like  manner  also  Winer,  De  pedum  in  criice  affixione,  Leipz.  Progr, 
1845;  Realw.,  art.  "  Kreuzigung ; "  and,  with  some  hesitation, 
Schleiermacher,  Leb.  yes.,  S.  447,  Chr.  J.  von  Bunsen,  Liicke,  and 
others),^  is  shown  by  the  direct  biblical  evidence  of  Luke  xxiv.  39 

'  [That  the  nailing,  too,  invariably  accompanied  the  crucifixions  in  various  forms 
inflicted  by  the  Roman  soldiers  in  mockery,  even  as  the  scourging  invariably  pre- 
ceded them,  is  shown  from  JoSEPHUS  :  ^a.CTi.'yov^Evoi  .  .  .  dvearavpowTO  .  .  . 
ITposTjAoLif  5^  ol  arpaTiuTai,  Sl  dpyrjP  Kal  fuaos  roiis  aXovras,  aWou  dWip  iTX77/xaTi 
Trpbs  x^^'^V- — -S-  y^  V.  II,  I.] 

*  E.  V.  Bunsen,  S.  33,  expresses  doubt  as  to  whether  even  the  hands  of  the 
Saviour  were  nailed.  He  speaks  of  the  cross  "upon  which  Jesus  was  crucified, 
and  upon  which  cross  drops  of  blood  must  have  fallen  on  the  nailing  of  his  hands, 
unless  these  were  bound,  as  ordinarily  in  crucifixions  by  the  Romans."  He  accord- 
ingly interprets  Luke  xxiv.  39,  40,  of  the  marks  of  the  bound  (fettered)  hands  and 
feet.     "  Only  John  xx.  25 — 27  refers  unequivocally  to  the  nailing  ; "  which — as  the 


4l6  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

— with  which  John  xx.  20 — 27  is  not  in  contradiction,  since  on  the 
ground  of  decorum  the  wounds  in  the  feet  would  not  be  mentioned;  ^ 
as  further  by  the  testimony  of  Justin  M.  {Dial  c.  Tryph.,  c.  97),  of 
Tertullian  {adv.  Marc,  iii.  19  :  Foderunt  inquit  manus  meas  et  pedes, 
guce propria  atrocitas  criicis),  of  Hilary  {Tract,  in  Ps.  143),  of  Augus- 
tine {in  Ps.  39),  and  other  Fathers ;  finally,  by  that  of  an  ancient 
classic  of  decisive  weight,  by  the  passage  in  the  Mosiellaria  of  Plautus 
(ii.  I,  12). 

"  Ego  dabo  ei  talentum,  prius  qui  in  crucem  excucurrerit ; 
Sed  ea  lege,  ut  offigantur  bis  pedes,  bis  brachia," 

which — as  is  shown  from  the  double  nailing — presupposes  the  existence 
of  the  nailing  of  the  feet  and  hands  as  a  universal  custom  ;  but  by 
announcing  a  twofold  nailing  of  the  feet  too,  menaces  with  the  threat 
of  an  unwonted  severity  in  the  infliction  of  this  terrible  punishment. 
This  passage,  rightly  interpreted,  renders  it  at  the  same  time  prepon- 
derantly probable  that  the  nailing  of  the  feet,  as  a  rule,  took  place  by 
means  of  a  single  iron  nail  or  spike  of  great  strength,  driven  in 
common  through  the  two  feet  placed  the  one  above  the  other.  It 
thus  farther  aids  us  in  the  decision  of  another  archaeological  contro- 
versy of  ancient  date — that,  namely,  as  to  whether  three  or  four  nails 
were  employed  in  the  crucifixion  :  see  above,  p.  175  f  of  the  text.  A 
right  conclusion  is  formed  on  the  general  question  as  to  the  nailing 
of  the  feet  (especially  in  opposition  to  Paulus)  by  Hengstenberg, 
Hug,  Bahr,  Neander  [Engl.  ed.  of  Life  of  yesus,  page  464,  note], 
Langen,  Keim,  Ehrard,  Meyer,  Fr.  X.  Kraus,  Zestermann,  Degen. — 
With  regard  to  the  controversy  as  to  there  being  one  or  two  nails 
inserted  in  the  feet,  the  more  probable  opinion — in  opposition  to  that 
of  two  nails  being  employed,  a  view  defended  by  many  in  earlier  and 
later  times,  as  pseudo-Cyprian  {De  passione),  Ambrose,  Augustine, 
Ruffinus,  Theodoret,  Gregory  of  Tours,  the  Anglo-Saxon  Aelfric, 
Pope  Innocent  III.,  Luke  of  Tuy,  St.  Brigitta,  Gretser,  Corn. 
Curtius  {De  clavis  dominicis,  Vesal.  1675,  ed.  alt.),  also  Meyer  {on 
Alatt.  xxvii.  35),  Martigny  {Dictiomi.  des  antiquites  chret.,  p.  192), 
Langen    {Letzte   Lebenst-y.,    S.    319),    Miinz    ("Zur     Gesch.    des 

authenticity  of  the  fourth  gospel  is  very  decidedly  rejected  by  this  writer — amounts 
in  reality  to  no  evidence  beyond  that  of  a  highly  questionable  tradition.  But 
compare  the  "  Insertum  manibus  chalybem  "  of  the  Roman  poet — a  contemporary 
of  St.  Paul.     (Lucan.,  Pharsalia,  vi.  547.) 

'  [Nor  was  there  any  necessity  that  the  Saviour  should  thus  enumerate  His 
■wounds  :  it  was  enough  for  Thomas  to  recognise  the  rcaliiy  of  the  pierced  hands 
and  side.l 


APPENDIX.  417 

Kreuzes,"  Katholik,  1867,  S.  577),  F.  X.  Kraus  {Beitrdge  zur 
Trier' schen  Archdo/ogie,  S.  18),  Degen,  etc. — according  to  which 
only  one  nail  was  used  for  the  feet,  thus  three  nails  in  all,  is 
maintained  by  Gregory  Nazianzen  {VvfjLvov  rpisi^Ao)  Kei/xevov  f-JAw 
XdfBuiv,  Chr.  patiens,  v.  1466),  Nonnus  (a^nyt  yofKfxa,  Paraphr.^  in 
'  yoann.,  c.  xix.),  Anselm  of  Canterbury  [Medif.  X.  de  pass.  Chr.), 
Walter  v.  der  Vogelweide  (in  Lachm.,  S.  37),  the  early  English 
writing  Ancren  Riwle  (in  Morris,  Legends  of  the  Holy  Rood,  p.  xx.), 
the  Albigenses  of  the  Middle  Ages  (see  the  polemics  directed  against 
them  by  Luke  of  Tuy :  De  altera  vita,  c.  Albigg.,  lib.  ii.  222  sqq.), 
Daniel  Malloni  {Elucidationes  in  Stigmata  D.  N.  J^.  C,  Venet. 
1606 — opposed  by  C^irtius,  /.  c),  most  recently  by  Keim  (iii.  416, 
who,  however,  is  not  quite  decided,  but  admits  there  may  have 
been  a  separate  nailing  of  each  foot),  Zestermann  (S.  47) ;  also 
Canon  Farrar  (art.  "  Cross,"  in  Smith's  Didy.  of  the  Bible). — On  the 
position  of  Christian  art  traditio?i  in  relation  to  this  controversy — 
in  the  earlier  Middle  Ages  decidedly  favouring  the  supposition 
of  a  twofold  nailing  of  the  feet ;  but  from  the  time  of  Cimabue 
and  Margaritone  (cent.  13)  inclining  to  the  representation  of  the 
feet  as  placed  one  over  the  other,  and  pierced  by  a  common 
nail — comp.  Martigny,  /.  c.  ;  Piper,  Einleitung  in  die  mofiumentale 
Theologie,  S.  620;  Stockbauer,  S.  159,  and  elsewhere;  also  Morris, 
I.e.,  p.  19,  where  reference  is  made  to  an  interesting  copper  crucifix 
belonging  to  the  twelfth  century  (in  the  Soltykofif  art  collection), 
which  displays  only  one  nail  through  the  feet. 

8.  The  attaching  of  the  title  above  the  head  of  the  crucified, 
mentioned  by  all  four  Evangelists,  and  that  as  something  naturally 
in  course ;  not  as  an  extraordinary  occurrence,  but  as  something 
taking  place  at  all  crucifixions.  See  above,  in  the  text ;  also  the 
passages  from  the  classics  cited  under  No.  2  of  this  excurse, 
which  attest,  not  indeed  expressly,  but  yet  indirectly  and  by  that 
which  they  presuppose,  the  affixing  of  the  title  at  the  head  of  the 
cross.  Nor  can  it  be  distinctly  inferred  from  Chrysostom,  Horn. 
85  tn  y^oann.  :  01  yap  Xrja-Twv  (crrarpoi)  tltX-ov;  ovk  etp^oj/,  that 
— contrary  to  the  custom  in  other  instances — no  superscriptions 
were  placed  over  the  malefactors  on  the  right  and  left  hand  of  the 
Lord ;  for  Chrysostom  rested  his  reasoning  only  on  the  silence 
of  the  Evangelists  with  regard  to  the  titles  above  the  malefactors' 
crosses ;  an  argument  to  which  in  itself  no  demonstrative  value  can 
be  attached.  (This  in  opposition  to  Zestermann,  S.  48.)  Comp., 
moreover,  Grets.  i.  26 — 28,  as  well  as  Nicquet,  De  titulo  S.  Crucis 

27 


41  8  THE    CROSS   OF    CHRIST. 

diss,  (in  Authores  de  cruce,  5  torn.,  i2mo,  Lugd.  Bat.  1695); 
Alberti,  De  inscriptione  criicis  Chr.,  Lips.  1725  ;  Altmann,  in  Tempe 
Helv.,  iv.  662  sqq. 

9.  The  watching  (guarding)  of  the  crucified,  to  prevent  their 
being  taken  down  by  friends,  certainly  was  regularly  observed. 
Not  only  is  this  attested  by  the  Evangelists,  but  also,  e.g.,  by  Cicero, 
pro  Rabir.,  iv.  11 ;  Petron.,  Sat.  in  j  Quintil.  Decl.,  vi.  9. — On  the 
milder  practice,  obtaining  from  the  time  of  Augustus,  which  rendered 
a  prolonged  watching  unnecessary,  was  in  harmony  with  the  corre- 
sponding principles  of  Mosaism  (see  Deut.  xxi.  23;  Josh.  x.  27), 
and  partly  on  this  very  account,  and  in  order  not  too  greatly  to 
shock  the  religious  prejudices  of  the  Jewish  people,  wa»  followed  by 
Pilate  in  the  case  of  the  Lord,  comp.  what  has  been  already  said 
above,  No.  3  [and  Josephus,  B.  y.,  iv.  5,  §  2]. 

10.  The  accelerating  of  death  by  the  breaking  of  the  legs,  or  by  the 
thrust  of  the  spear.  Since  death  on  the  cross  was  ordinarily  exceed- 
ingly slow,  sometimes  even  only  resulted  from  hunger  after  a  hanging 
of  several  days'  duration  (Euseb.,  If.  E.,  viii.  8),  or  from  the  laceration 
of  the  flesh  by  beasts  of  prey  (comp.  what  was  said  above,  in  the 
text,  p.  51),  and  at  any  rate  only  ensued  amidst  acute  agonies 
(Seneca,  Ep.  ci.  :  tabescere  inter  supplicia,  et  membratim  perire, 
et  per  stillicidia  emittere  spiritum),  there  were  also  occasionally 
certain  lenitives  to  the  terrible  lot  of  the  crucified  applied  by 
the  Romans.  Thus  not  only  the  rendering  insensible  by  the  giving 
of  wine  mingled  with  myrrh — a  custom  not  mentioned  in  the 
classics ;  thus  only  a  specially  Jewish  practice :  comp.  Langen, 
as  before,  S.  300 ;  Wetstein  on  Mark  xv.  23 — but  also,  more 
particularly,  the  breaking  of  the  legs  (orKeXoKOTria),  in  order  to 
bring  about  death  more  rapidly ;  a  barbaric  custom  on  other 
occasions  also  employed  as  a  particular  mode  of  execution  (inde- 
pendently of  crucifixion),  comp.  Plant,  Asin.  ii.  4,  68 ;  Seneca, 
de  Ira,  iii.  32  ;  Suet.,  Aug.  67  ;  Tib.  44,  but  which  in  the  case  of 
one  thoroughly  exhausted  by  crucifixion  and  wearied  of  life  might 
almost  be  regarded  as  a  benefit.  Origen  {in  Matt,  xxvii.  54) 
attests  the  custom  as  a  crvv>;^cia  twv  Pw/^aiW.  Less  common 
appears  to  have  been  that  other  practice,  mentioned  also  by  Origen, 
I.e.,  and  applied  in  the  case  of  Christ,  of  a  thrust  with  a  spear  in 
the  side,  in  the  place  of  the  breaking  of  the  legs.  (John  xix.  31  ff.) 
Yet  compare,  with  regard  to  this,  too  e.g.  Plin.,  H.  N.,  xi.  45 ; 
Quintil.,  Decl.  vi.  9;  and  see  in  general  Lipsius,  De  cruce,  ii.  14; 
not.    in   lib.    ii.    10;   Friedlieb,   ArchdoL,  S.    164   ff. — Against  the 


APPENDIX.  419 

assertion  on  the  part  of  Strauss  and  Weisse  of  the  unhistorical 
character  of  John's  account  of  the  breaking  of  the  legs  and  of 
the  spear-thrust  («omp.  too  Keim,  iii.  509  ff.)  see  specially  Ebrard, 
Wisscnsch.  Krit.  dcr  Evang.  Geschichte,  3rd  edn.,  732  ff. 


VII. 
History  of  the  Exposition  of  the  Passage  Ephes.  iii.    18;  as 

COMPARED    WITH    JOB    xi.    8,  9,  AND    PSALM  CXXxix.   8 lO. 

(To  p.  103.) 

Jak.  Grimm  {Deutsche  MythoL,  ii.  758,  2nd  edn.)  believes  that  his 
theory  of  the  ancient  Germanic  myth  of  the  world-tree  Yggdrasill 
being  transferred  during  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  cross  of  Christ, 
"  would  fall  if  the  same  exposition  of  the  wood  of  the  cross  (as  sym- 
bolical representations  of  the  tree  of  the  world,  which  extends  in  its 
uppermost  boughs  to  heaven,  in  its  roots  to  the  nether  world,  in  its 
branches  to  the  ends  of  the  earth)  could  be  proved  out  of  earlier 
African  or  Eastern  fathers ; "  but  doubts  as  to  the  possibility  of 
adducing  such  proof  That  this  doubt — with  the  removal  of  which 
the  supposition  of  a  pre-Christian  origin  to  the  world-tree  of  the 
ancient  Germans,  however,  by  no  means  loses  its  support  (see  above 
in  the  text,  p.  21) — is  not  warranted,  may  easily  be  shown  by  an 
abundance  of  patristic  testimonies  for  the  interpretation  of  the  cross 
as  a  kind  of  world-tree,  specially  for  the  referring  of  its  four  extremities 
to  the  four  relations  of  space — above,  below,  east,  and  west.  We 
have  already  (Appendix  V.),  in  harmony  with  Zestermann,  adduced 
a  number  of  these  utterances,  as  instances  in  favour  of  the  probability 
that  the  historic  cross  of  Christ  was  of  four-armed  construction. 
Here  we  would  in  particular  point  to  a  series  of  reasonings,  belonging 
alike  to  the  patristic  as  to  later  theological  literature,  in  which  the  said 
symbolical  meaning  in  reference  to  the  cross  is  attached  to  the  words 
of  Paul,  iva  i^ia)(V(Tr]T€  KaTaXafSecrOaL  avv  Trdaiv  rots  dytots  ri  to  ttXcitos 
/cat  firJKo<;  koi  f^dOo?  koL  v{j/o<s  (Ephes.  iii.  1 8),  or  also  to  their  Old 
Testament  types.  Job  xi.  8,  9  ("  heights  of  heaven  is  it ;  what  canst 
thou  do?  deeper  than  the  nether  world;  what  canst  thou  know? 
Longer  than  the  earth  is  its  measure,  and  broader  is  it  than  the  sea,") 
and  Psalm  cxxxix.  8 — 10  ("If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  Thou  art 
there;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,"  etc.) 


420  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

As  concerns  Ephes.  iii.  i8  more  immediately,  Gregory  of  Nyssa 
appears  to  have  been  the  first  among  the  Greek  fathers  to  inter- 
pret of  the  cross  the  allusion  in  this  passage  to  the  four  directions  in 
space.  After  he  had,  in  the  Orat.  catechet.  jnagtia,  c.  32,  explained 
the  deeper  significance  of  the  four-armed  conformation  of  the 
cross  by  the  statement  that  "  He  who  in  His  passion  hung 
extended  thereon  unites  and  combines  in  Himself  the  whole 
universe ;  inasmuch  as,  by  means  of  Himself,  He  gathers  together 
the  most  diverse  creatures  into  one  accord  and  harmony "  (on  6 
CTTi  Tovrov  kv  T(i>  Kaipcj)  -nys  Kara  tov  Odvarov  oiKovo/Ata5  Siara^cis  6  to 
TTav  Trpo?  kavTov  cruvSewv  re  Kai  crvvapfio^wv  Icttl,  ras  Sta^opas  rtov  ovtmv 
(jivaeL^  Trpos  /AtW  a-vfjurvotdv  t€  /cat  dpfxovLav  81  iavTov  avvdywv)  .... 
"  in  such  wise  that  every  creature  looks  up  to  Him,  and  surrounds 
Him,  and  by  Him  is  connected  with  other  creatures  in  every  direc- 
tion " — he  continues,  "  For  the  contemplation  of  this  Divine  mystery 
(///.  Divinity)  we  must  not  merely  be  guided  by  the  hearing  (by 
listening  to  His  word),  but  our  eyes  too  must  instruct  us  in  the 
sublime  truths.  On  this  account  the  great  apostle  Paul  initiates  the 
people  of  the  Ephesians  into  such  mystery ;  inasmuch  as  by  his 
instruction  he  enables  them  to  comprehend  what  is  the  depth  and 
the  height,  and  the  breadth  and  the  length,"  etc.  ;  upon  which  there 
follows  an  interpretation  of  the  passage  Phil.  ii.  10  f.  with  reference  to 
the  same  mystery  of  the  four  dimensions  of  the  cross.  Similarly  in 
0/-af.  i.  de  resurrect.  Christi.  "  Not  without  reason,"  he  here  says, "does 
the  holy  eye  of  the  Apostle  perceive  the  figure  of  the  cross ;"  upon 
which  he  proceeds  to  show  pretty  circumstantially  how  the  mention  of 
the  height  {vij/os)  indicates  the  uppermost  end  of  the  cross;  that  of  the 
depth,  the  lower  ;  that  of  the  length  and  breadth,  the  two  extremities 
of  the  transverse  beam  ;  and  how,  on  account  of  the  significance  of 
these  four  extremities  of  the  cross,  pointing  to  the  four  ends  of  the 
world,  the  cross  of  the  Lord  merits  in  truth  to  be  called  a  "  bond  of 
all  things,"  o-wSeo-fios  (XTravTwi/. — From  the  Nyssenian  this  mode  of 
interpretation  passed  over  to  a  series  of  later  fathers  of  the  Eastern 
Church  ;  e.g.,  to  Anastasius  Sinaiita,  who  from  our  passage,  as  well 
as  from  the  similar  one,  Ephes.  iv.  8 — 10,  developed  his  mystic- 
quixotic  etymology  of  the  name  a-ravpo?  =  o-to.  evpos  ( Vice  Dux, 
c.  ii.  de  etymolog  :  crravpos,  crux  =  crra  eSpos,  sfa  latitude ;  crTdcns 
KOL  evpf)^  Yjyovv  [xrJKo<;  koX  TrXaros,  longitudo  et  latitudo  :  nam 
latitude  appellatur  eupos.  See  BiK  Patr.  Lugd.,  t.  ix.,  f.  818 
sqq.) ;  also  to  John  of  Damascus  {De  fide  orthod.,  iv.  12); 
comp.  also  Maxim.  Conf.,  Liturg.   Expos.,  c.   2  sqq. — A  modified 


APPENDIX.  421 

form  of  this  interpretation  is  advocated  too  by  those  more  sober 
exegetes  of  the  Greek  Church,  such  as  Chrysostom,  Theodoret, 
CEcumenius,  Theophylact,  who  see  indicated  here — not  indeed 
the  cross  immediately  and  per  se,  but  yet  the  redeeming  work 
of  Christ.  (Chrysostom,  to  ixva-Trjpiov  r6  virep  vfithv  oiKovojirjdev. 
Gicumenius,  the  redemption  by  Christ  was  determined  from  all 
eternity  [/xtJkos],  reached  forth  unto  all  [TrXaros],  extends  by  its  power 
into  hell  [/3a^os],  and  is  by  the  exaltation  of  Christ  raised  above  all 
heavens  [vi/^os],  etc.) 

Of  Western  Fathers,  Ruffinus  is  the  first  who  comes  under  this 
category.  In  §  14  of  his  Expos,  in  Syjnb.  Apost.,  he  remarks  : 
"  Docet  apost.  Paulus  illuminatos  esse  debere  oculos  cordis  nostri,  ad 
intelligendum  quae  sit  altitudo,  latitudo,  et  profundum.  Altit.  ergo, 
et  lat.,  et  prof,  descriptio  crucis  est,  cujus  eam  partem  quse  in  terra 
defixa  est,  profundum  appellavit,"  etc.  He  was  followed  by  Jerome, 
who  in  his  commentary  on  the  Ep.  to  the  Ephesians  {0pp.,  t.  vii.  i, 
p.  603,  Vail.)  interprets  the  altitudo  of  the  Pauline  passage  of  the 
angel  world,  the  profiiJidum  of  the  nether  world,  the  breadth  and 
ength  of  the  middle  space  between  the  two,  and  then  continues 

"  Haec  universa  in  cruce  Domini  nostri  J.  C.  intelligi  queunt 

Nee  mirum  si  crux  Christi  universa  possideat,  quum  etiam  si  quis 
crucifixus  fuerit  cum  Christo  eandem  habeat  protestatem," — namely, 
because  he  then  knows  what  is  the  lowest  and  the  highest,  the  length 
and  the  breadth,  etc. 

With  special  minuteness  of  detail  does  Augustine  apply  himself  in 
several  places  to  the  bringing  out  of  the  mystic  references  to  the 
cross  contained  in  Ephes.  iii.  18;  to  which  references  he  at  the  same 
time  gives  a  moral  application,  of  the  main  duties  of  Christians — of 
love,  or  activity  in  good  works  ;  of  patience,  or  endurance  to  the  end ; 
of  the  hope  of  everlasting  blessedness ;  and  the  profound  contem- 
plation of  the  mysteries  of  Divine  grace.  Thus  he  says  of  Christ, 
in  Serm.  liii.  de  verb.  Matt.  v.  {0pp.,  t.  v.,  c.  317)  :  "  Non  frustra 
ergo  crucem  elegit,  ubi  te  huic  mundo  crucifigeret.  Nam  latitudo  est 
in  cruce  transversum  lignum,  ubi  figuntur  man  us  :  propter  bonorum 
operum  significationem.  Longitudo  est  in  ea  parte  ligni,  quae  ab  ipso 
transverso  ad  terram  tendit.  Ibi  enim  corpus  crucifigitur,  et  quod- 
ammodo  stat;  et  ipsa  static  perseverantiam  significat.  Altitudo 
autem  in  illo  ligno  est,  quod  ab  eodem  transverso  sursum  versus  ad 
caput  eminet ;  et  ea  significatur  supernorum  expectatio.  Ubi  pro- 
fundum, nisi  in  ea  parte,  quse  terras  defixa  est  ?  Occulta  enim  est 
gratia  et  in  abdito  latet.      Post  haec  si  comprehenderis  h^ec  omnia, 


42  2  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

non  solum  intelligendo  verum  etiam  agendo — tunc  jam  extende  te, 
si  potes,  ad  agnoscendam  agnitionem  caritatis  Christi  supereminentem 
scientiae,"  etc.  Entirely  similarly  also  Ep.  140  iOpp.,  t.  ii.,  c.  446 
sq.);  in  Joan.,  cap.  xix.,  tract.  119  {t.  iii.  c.  801);  ///  Ps.  ciii. — From 
Augustine  this  mode  of  interpretation,  alike  objective  as  subjective, 
by  which  on  the  one  hand  the  many-sidedness  and  immeasurableness 
of  the  Divine  compassions,  and  on  the  other  the  fulness  of  the 
Christian  virtues,  is  found  indicated  in  the  four  relations  of  height, 
depth,  length,  and  breadth,  passes  over  to  the  majority  of  the  Western 
theologians  who  succeeded  him;  e.g.,  to  Cassiodorus,  Gregory  the 
Great  {Lib.  sacramentoriwi,  p.  86,  torn,  iii.,  0pp.,  ed.  Bened.)  pseudo 
Bede,-*^  Thomas  Aquinas — here  and  there  with  peculiar  deviations 
from  Augustine's  moral  interpretation.  Comp.,  for  instance,  Bernard 
of  Clairvaux,  in  pseudo-Bonaventura  {F/iaretr.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  10) : 
"  Circumire  possum,  Domine,  coelum  et  terram,  mare  et  aridam,  et 
nusquam  inveniam  te,  nisi  tantum  in  cruce  :  ibi  dormis,  ibi  pascis, 
ibi  cubas  in  meridie.  Crux  enim  tua  fides  est,  cujus  latitude  charitas, 
longitude  longanimitas,  altitudo  spes,  profundum  timor,"  etc. — A 
specifically  ascetic  interpretation  of  the  four  relations  is  given  in  the 
pseudo-Anselmian  book  De  mejisuratione  crucis  (in  Ansel  mi  0pp.,  ed. 
Colon.  1573,  torn,  iii.,  p.  311  sqq.  ;  in  Migne,  t.  ii.,  p.  290  sqq.), 
which  would  refer  the  depth  to  humility,  the  height  to  the  duty  ot 
praising  and  loving  God  above  all  things,  the  breadth  to  the  obedience 
of  faith,  the  length  finally  to  the  enduring  nature  of  self-surrender  to 
the  Lord :  "  Debemus  ergo  habere  cruciatum,  eo  quod  non  tantum 
humiliamur  ut  debemus,  et  hoc  est  profundum  crucis.  .  .  .  Sub- 
limitas  crucis  est  cruciari  pro  eo,  quod  te  ad  plenum  laudare  non 
possumus  et  amare.  .  .  .  Latitude  autem  crucis  est  fidelitas  semper 
spiritum  crucians  et  dilatans,  ut  omnen  hominem  subjiciat  tuae  laudi  ac 
servituti.  .  .  .  Longitude  autem  crucis  tuae  toti  vitae  nostrae  debet 
commensurari,  ut  quamvis  consideremus  tecum  esse  jucundum  et  te 
in  dome  tua  laudare  et  in  abysso  tuae  dulcedinis  abserberi :  tamen 
non  taedeat  nos  portare  crucem  tuam,  scilicet  in  misera  hac  vita  pre 
tuae  laudis  augmento." — The  learned  Romish  exegesis  of  more  recent 
times  delights  in  gathering  together  all  the  different  modifications  of 
this  mystic  interpretation,  and  in  like  manner  in  characterising  them 
as  admissible.  Thus  Cornelius  a  Lapide  {Comment,  in  onines  D. 
Pauli  epistolas,  p.  496  sqq.)  approves  in  the  first  place  of  all  the 
different  modes  of  interpretation  not  directly  applying  these  words  of 

'  On  the  non-genuineness  of  the  Comtn.  in  Epp.  Pauli,  handed  down  in  Bede's 
works,  cp.     K.  Werner,  Beda  der  Ehrw.  (1875),  S.  185. 


APP£.NDIX.  423 

the  Apostle  to  the  cross  ;  thus  (i)  the  referring  of  them  to  the  extent 
of  the  redeeming  work  of  Christ — Chrysostom,  Theod.,  Oecum.,  etc. ; 
(2)  to   the  all-filUng  Godhead  of  Christ — Ambrose,   Greg.    Magn., 
Anselm,  Bernard,  Thomas  Aq.  ;    (3)  those  to  the  spiritual  measure- 
ments or  fourfold  perfections  of  the  Church  of  Christ — Jerome,  Greg., 
Anselm,   etc.  ;    (4)  the  anagogic,  having  reference  to  the   infinite 
fulness   of  glory  of  the    heavenly   {^jenseiiige)   Kingdom  of  God — 
Anselm.     Besides  these  interpretations  (of  which  he  prefers  the  first- 
mentioned  as  the  sejisiis  maxime  genuimis)  he  discusses  minutely,  and 
in  the  main  also  approvingly,  those  interpretations  which  refer  these 
words  to  the  cross  ;  among  which  again  he  declares  admissible  the 
objective  mystical  and  the  subjective  mystical  or  moral  modification 
of  Augustine,  yet,  along  with  these,  also  the  ascetic-contemplative  one 
of  the  before-mentioned    pseudo-Anselmian  writing. — Similarly,  yet 
entering   less  into   details,  Estius,  and  the   bulk  of  those  Romish 
exegetes   who   proceeded   according   to   the   traditional    allegorical 
method.     The  Lutherans,  on  the  other  hand,  for  the  most  part  return 
to  that  interpretation  of  the  passage  of  the  immensity  or  unfathom- 
ableness  of  the  mystery  of  grace  favoured  by  Chrysostom,  Theo- 
doret,  and  others.      Thus,  e.g.,   Salom.   Glassius    {in  Dom.  xvi.,  p. 
Trin.,   p.   503) :    "  Mathematicam  instituit  Apostolus    et   secundum 
quatuor  dimensiones  dilectionem  Christi  quasi  metitur.  .  .  .  Verum 
mensuratione  ista  dv^/awTroTra^tKws  instituta  ejusdem  immensurabilita- 
tem  et  immensitatem  in  rei  veritate  indicat,  quasi  dicat  :    altior  est 
coelis,  profundior  mari,  latior  latitudine  terrarum,  longior  omni  tem- 
pore, utpote  in  omnem  ceternitatem  durans."     Similarly  Calov  {Bibl. 
tllust?-ata,  i.   iv.),   who  cites   this   passage   approvingly;    so  also  the 
writers   adduced  by   Calov  as  authorities,   C.  Hemming,  Osiander, 
^gidius  Hunnius.     In  like  manner  the  Reformed  theologians,  Beza, 
Piscator,  Zanchius,   Crocius,  etc. ;    as  well  as  a  series  of  modern 
Protestant    exegetes ;     as     Riickert,    Olshausen,     Baumg.-Crusius, 
Harless. — A  few  theologians  of  more  recent  times  return  to  that  inter- 
pretation of  the  reference  to  the  four  dimensions — closely  allied  to 
the  foregoing — of  the   love  of  God  ;    an  interpretation  which  in 
earlier  times  found    advocates    in   Theodoras   of  Mopsuestia   and 
Chrysostom  (the  latter  favouring  it  along  with  the  view  above  spoken 
of),  and  later  in  Erasmus,  Vatablus,  Grotius,  S.  J.  Baumgarten,  Flatt ; 
whilst  many,  more  in  harmony  with  the  context,  have  maintained 
that  the  more  definite  conception  of  the  love  of  Christ  to  us  is  that 
which  is  aimed  at  in  this  allusion  to  the  four  dimensions  of  its  great- 
ness :    so   Castellio,  Calvin,   Calixt,  Zacharia,  Morus,  Storr,  Rosen- 


424  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

miiller,  Meyer,  Braune  [in  Lange's  series],  the  last  named  again  with 
a  more  express  indication  of  that  which  is  intended  by  the  four 
dimensions  of  this  love  of  Christ  (namely,  that  it  stretches  in .  its 
breadth  over  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  extends  in  its  le7igth  through 
all  times,  that  it  descends  into  the  depths  of  human  sin  and  misery, 
and  that  it  raises  all  to  Divine  glory) ;  while  others,  as  Meyer,  reject 
all  such  nearer  explanation.  To  this  interpretation  in  reference  to 
the  greatness  of  the  saving  love  of  Jesus  towards  His  Church,  now 
the  one  most  generally  accepted  in  scientific-exegetic  tradition,  that 
earlier  mystical  application  of  the  words  to  the  cross  does  in  point  of 
fact  approach  very  nearly,  inasmuch  as  this  cross  can  here  certainly 
come  into  contemplation  only  as  the  pregnant  symbol  of  the  love  of 
the  Lord  towards  His  people.  The  context,  it  is  true,  affords  by 
reason  of  its  comparative  indefiniteness  no  ground  for  speaking  of 
the  cross  of  Christ  in  particular,  any  more  than  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ,  or  the  Church  (the  spiritual  temple  of  God),  as  definitely  and 
expressly  intended  by  the  Apostle  as  the  object  of  the  measuring  in 
the  four  directions.  Comp.,  in  regard  to  this  latter  interpretation, 
yet  further  the  words  of  Luther  {Serm.  07i  Ephes.  iii.  13 — 21  ;  Erl. 
edn.,  9.  280),  "That  I  know,  and  am  assured,  that  wherever  I  may 
go,  Christ  is  there,  and  reigns  there  and  in  all  places — wherever  there 
is  length,  or  breadth,  or  depth,  or  height ;  be  it  temporal  or  eternal," 
etc, ;  as  also  Heinsius,  Homberg,  Wolff,  Bengel,  MichaeHs,  Koppe, 
Stier,  and  V.  Hofmann. 

Several  other  texts  of  Scripture,  like  this  passage  of  Ephesians 
pointing  to  the  four  relations  in  space,  of  height  and  depth,  length 
and  breadth,  have  also  sometimes  been  interpreted  directly  of  the 
Cross  of  the  Lord.  So,  besides  Phil.  ii.  10  f  (comp.,  e.g., 
Ruffinus,  Expos,  m  Symb.,  1.  c,  and  Augustine  in  some  of  the 
passages  already  cited)  specially  the  above  O.  T.  utterances. 
Job  xi.  8  (cp.,  for  ex.,  pseudo-Bonavent,  Pharetr.,  1.  c. ;  Thorn. 
Aqu.,  as  also  Everard  of  Bethune,  Contr.  Valdetises,  c.  17,  etc.), 
and  Psalm  cxxxix.  (138),  v.  8  f,  where  e.g.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  {Orat.  i. 
de  resurr.  Christi),  Augustine,  and  Cassiodorus,  in  their  commentaries 
on  the  Psalms,  have  sought  to  trace  out  an  allusion  to  the  cross. 

Without  any  special  reference  to  one  or  other  of  these  passages 
have  the  four  dimensions  in  space  been  pretty  often,  and  that  even 
down  to  the  most  recent  times,  brought  into  mystic  relation  with 
the  cross.  To  this  class  of  references  belong  in  antiquity — in 
addition  to  Ambrose,  De  Cruce,  Serm.  56;  Firm.  Maternus,  E>e 
erroreprqf.  religg.,  c.   22;   pseudo-Jerome  in  Marc.   15,  and  Basil. 


APPENDIX.  425 

Magn.,  Comm.  in  Isai.  c.  11 — specially  the  celebrated  verses  of 
Coelius  Sedulius,  often  cited  by  the  apologetes  of  the  Romish  cultus 
of  the  cross,  alike  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  in  modern  times  {Carm. 
pasch.,  lib.  iii.) : 

**  Quatuor  inde  plagas  quadrati  colligit  orbis, 
Splendidus  auctoris  de  vertice  fulget  Eous  ; 
Occiduo  sacra;  labuntur  sidera  plantse  ; 
Arcton  dextra  tenet,  medium  Iseva  erigit  axem. 
Cunctaque  de  membris  vivit  naturse  creantis, 
Et  cruce  complexum  Christus  regit  undique  mundum." 

In  recent  times,  contemplations  of  this  kind  have  presented  them- 
selves in  special  abundance  in  the  writings  of  theosophic  authors, 
as  Douze-tems  {Myst.  de  la  Croix,  ch.  xiii.  :  des  merveilles  de  la 
Croix  dans  la  Nature  exterieure) ;  F.  v.  Meyer  {Bliitt.  f.  hoh 
Wahrheit,  viii.  145  f.  :  "The  cross  points  .upwards  and  downwards, 
to  the  right  and  to  the  left ;  its  fourfold  direction  indicates  the 
universe  {das  All),  to  which  it  flows  in,  and  from  which  it  flows 
forth.  Its  summit  rises  to  the  throne  of  the  Godhead,  and  its  roots 
extend  into  the  nether  world.  Its  arms  stretch  forth  from  the  rising 
of  the  sun  to  the  setting  of  the  same,  from  pole  to  pole.  Heaven 
and  earth  are  in  it  united,  in  it  satisfied  ;  the  most  opposed  is  in  it 
reconciled  and  made  one " ) ;  Saltzmann  i^Der  Rathschluss  Gottes, 
etc.),  p.  168  f  :  "The  figure  of  the  cross  forms  two  lines,  of  which 
the  height  and  depth,  breadth  and  length,  extend  to  the  ends  of  the 
creation  and  intersect  each  other  in  the  centre,  where  the  life  of  all 
creation  is  situated,"  etc. ;  Baader,  Societdtsphilos.,  S.  104;^  comp. 
*'  Briefe,"  vol.  xv.,  S.  54  of  his  works.  Under  this  head,  too,  falls  a 
passage  in  Oetinger's  Theol.  ex  idea  vitce,  etc.  (§  126,  p.  278,  of 
Hamberger's  Germ,  edn.),  where  it  is  said  in  relation  to  the  mysteries 
of  the  Tree  of  Life  in  Paradise,  "  Morning,  evening,  midday  in 
Paradise  did  foreshadow  these  dispositions ;  " — according  to  Ham- 
berger  (/.  ^.)  " a  very  obscure  passage;"  but  one  which  immediately 
receives  its  light  so  soon  as  one  thinks  of  the  four  dimensions  of  the 
world  in  the  passages  Job  xi.  8,  Psalm  cxxxix.  8,  Ephes.  iii.  18,  of 
which  beyond  doubt  Oetinger  was  thinking. 

*  See  above,  p.  342. 


426  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 


VIIL 

JoH.  ScoTus  .Erigena  and  Fulbert  of  Chartres  as  Singers 
OF  THE  Cross. 

(To  page  216.) 

To  the  products  of  Latin  Christian  poetry,  which  may  be  looked 
upon  as  furnishing  evidence  of  a  specially  convincing  nature  in 
favour  of  the  assertion  frequently  made  by  us,  that  the  Cross  of 
THE  Lord  had  inspired  many  even  of  those  poets  less  distinguished 
as  such  to  the  bringing  forth  of  many  truly  beautiful  creations,  belong 
those  versified  prayers  which  Joh.  Scotus  Erigena  dedicated  to  his  royal 
patron  Charles  the  Bald,  and  which  are  given  in  the  edition  of  his 
theological  works  (in  Migne's  Patrol.,  Sen  ii.,  t.  122,  p.  1221  sqq.) 
Among  those  distichous  poems  which  form  the  first  series  of  the 
poetic  attempts  of  the  gifted  scholar  and  profound  thinker,  it  is 
specially  No.  I.,  De  Chris  to  cnicifixo,  and  No.  II.,  De  cruce,  partly 
also  those  pieces  treating  of  the  Descent  into  Hell  and  the  Resur- 
rection, Nos.  IV. — VI.,  which  present  remarkably  fine  contemplations 
and  descriptions — such  as  take  their  place  pretty  much  oh  equality 
side  by  side  with  the  best  of  that  which  has  been  bequeathed  to  us 
by  the  other  singers  of  the  cross  of  the  same  century,  Theodulf  of 
Orleans  or  Hraban. 

In  the  first-named  poem  (forty-one  distichs)  the  poet  begins  with  a 
comparison  of  the  profane  muse  of  classic  antiquity  with  that  of  the 
holy  Christian  singers;  thus  he  rises  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
Crucified  : 

"  Nunc  igitur  Christi  videamus  summa  tropaea 
Ac  nostrse  mentis  sidera  perspicua. 
Ecce  crucis  lignum  quadratum  continet  oibem, 
In  qua  pendebat  sponte  sua  Dominus 
Et  Verbum  Patris  dignatum  sumere  carneni, 
In  qua  pro  nobis  hostia  grata  fuit,"  etc. 

He  then  expatiates  in  praise  of  the  Crucified  as  the  giver  of  every 
good  and  perfect  gift,  and  then  implores  such  gifts  in  rich  abundance 
upon  his  kingly  ruler. 

The  poem  De  cruce  (thirty-six  distichs — I.e.,  p.  1223  sqq.)  presents 
at  its  commencement  many  points  of  accord  with  the  conception, 
frequently  presenting  itself  also  in  the  prose  works  of  Erigena 
(comp,  Christlieb,  Erig.,   S.  391  f.),  of  a  salutary  operation  of  the 


APPENDIX.  427 

work  of  redemption,  not  only  upon  the  angels,  but  even  upon  the 
lower  creation  on  earth  :  animals,  trees,  waters  of  the  sea,  winds,  etc. : 

"  Aspice  prajclarum  radiis  solaribus  orbem 
Quos  cnix  salviflua  spargit  ab  arce  sua. 
Terram  Neptunumque  tenet  flatumque  polosque 
Et  si  quid  supra  creditur  esse  procul. 
Dum  revocat  miseros  human:e  gentis  ab  imo, 
Cuspide  tartaream  percutit  ipsa  Stygin. 
O  crux  alma,  nites  ultra  Seraphim  Cherubimque ; 
Quod  est,  quod  non  est,  te  colit  omne  super. 
Te  Domini  rerum,  Virtutes  atque  Potestas, 

Ordo  colit,  medio  jure  tenendo  locum 

Te  TJ't)^  nostra*  dehinc  justo  modulamine  laudat,  [*  Ecclesia. 

Per  te  Christiferam  namque  redempta  fuit,"  etc. 

There  now  follows  a  detailed  description,  comparatively  at  any 
rate  somewhat  too  detailed,  of  the  miracle-working  rod  of  Moses,  as 
a  type  of  the  wood  of  the  cross  ;  as  well  as  in  general  of  the  miracles 
wrought  in  the  time  of  Moses  as  types  of  those  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. From  the  mention  of  the  brazen  serpent,  the  poet  in  the 
twenty-fifth  distich  suddenly  springs  over  to  the  subject  of  Mary 
Magdane,  longingly  seeking  the  Risen  One.     He  thus  addresses  her : 

*'  Desine  ca;parios  *  meditare  cernere  vultus  :  [*  ktjttos,  hortus  ; 

Vivus  adest  Dominus  ;  quern  gemis,  ipsa  vide.  vii/.  John  xx.  15. 

Tersa  pios  vultus  cursim  solabere  fratres  : 
Evangelistes  prima  beata  vale  ! — 
Christe,  Dei  Verbum,  Virtus,  Sapientia  Patris, 
Sanguinis  unda  tui,  qua  madat  ara  crucis, 
Nos  purgat,  redimit,  solvit,  vitamque  reducit, 
Electisque  tuis  prrestitit  esse  Deos." 

Of  contents  in  part  similar  is  No.  IV.,  De  resurrcdione,  where 
likewise  the  typical  parallel  with  the  miracles  of  the  Mosaic  period 
is  specially  worked  out : 

"  Festinans  populus  /Egypto  hunc  sumpserat  agnum, 
Sanguine  conspergens  limina  nota  domus. 
Hie  fons,  virga,  petra,  coelestis  fulgor  obumbrans, 
Seipens  et  manna,  nubs,  via,  panis,  aqua  : 
Talia  ssepe  Dei  jussu  sub  tempore  facta 
.internum  Dominum  significare  suum." 

Among  the  compositions  of  the  same  nature  belonging  to  the  second 
or  hexameter  series,  specially  No.  I.,  Chrlsti  triuviphus  de  morte  ac 
diabolo,  merits  a  distinguished  prominence.  Here  the  victory  of  the 
Crucified  is  celebrated,  i.  a.,  by  a  complaint  put  into  the  mouth  of 


42  8  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Satan,  of  which  the  pathos  occasionally  rises  to  the  flight  of  a  higher 
poetic  inspiration,  e.g., 

"  Me  victum  video,  fugitivum  sedibus  atris  ; 

Quae  nova  lux  oritur,  quam  nunquam  f'erre  valebo  ? 
Nunc  mea  regna  ruunt  passim,  loca  nulla  tenebris  : 
Sentio  me  captum,  pavidum  vinclisque  ligatum. 
Eheu,  quis  me  congreditur  ?     Quis  fortis  in  armis 
Audax  committit  mundi  cum  principe  bellum? 
Illene  confixus  ligno  septusque  sepulcro, 
Quern  rex  Herodes  sprevit  summusque  sacerdos 
Ruptus  non  timuit  damnare  Caiphas, 
Addictus  morti,  Romano  principe  csesus  ? 
Hoc  egomet  feci,  fateor,  totumque  peregi ; 
Me  stultum  latuit  virtus  humilisque  potestas. 
Hunc  si  cognossem,  crravpf  non  penderet  unquam  : 
Corporis  humani  sei"vilis  foiTna  fetellit. " 

At  length,  deceived  out  of  his  dominion  on  earth,  he  resolves  to 
betake  himself  to  the  only  place  of  refuge  still  left  to  him  : 

"  Unum  confugium  superest,  solamen  et  unum  : 
Est  antiqua  domus  mortis  noctisque  profunda, 
Judaicum  pectus,  vitiorum  plena  vorago, 
Fraudis  et  invidice  semper  possessio  larga.   .   .  . 
Illic  confugiani,  gentilia  pectora  linquens, 
Odibilis  Christo  dominabor  gentis  avar?e  ; 
Omne  meum  virus  fundam  blasphema  per  ora, 
Ligno  suspensum  Dominum  regnare  negando." 

Eut.  untroubled  about  these  new  hostile  designs  of  the  Evil  One,  the 
Church  of  Christ  has  extended  itself  over  the  whole  world,  and  ceases 
not  to  extol  Him  and  the  Holy  Trinity  in  its  songs  of  praise. 

The  comparative  insignificance  at  other  times  attached,  in  the 
theological  speculation  of  Erigena,  to  the  concrete  facts  (in  the  history 
of  redemption)  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  His  descent  into  Hades,  His 
resurrection,  etc. — subtilised  into  the  abstract  as  this  significance  is 
wont  to  some  extent  to  be — is  at  any  rate  in  these  compositions 
brought  into  relief  with  a  distinctness  such  as  is  only  rarely  met 
Avith  in  connection  with  the  Christian  thinkers  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Comp.  J.  Bach,  Dogmengesch.  des  M.  A.,  i.  295  f.,  where  stress  is  rightly 
laid  (in  opposition  to  Christlieb)  upon  this  their  dogmatic  importance. 

To  these  compositions  of  Erigena  there  appears  akin  in  point  of 
form  and  contents  an  hexameter  poem,  De  sanda  cruce,  which  with 
some  other  Latin  verses  (hymns,  prose  compositions,  prayers,  etc.) 
is  found  among  the  writings  of  Fuleert  of  Chartres  (f  1028) :  vid. 


APPENDIX.  429 

Migne,  Patrol,  Sen  i.,  t.  141,  c.  345.     We  give  here  at  least  the  first 
and  last  ones  of  the  thirty-seven  hexameters  : 

"  Vexillum  regis  venerabile  cuncta  regentis, 
O  crux  sancta,  micans  super  omnia  sidera  coeli, 
Mortifero  lapsis  gustu,  quas  sola  reportas 
Antidotum  vitre,  fructum  suspensa  perennem  : 
Te  colo,  te  fateor  venerans,  te  pronus  adoro. 
Christus  principium,  finis,  surrectio,  vita, 
Merces,  lux,  requies,  sanctorum  doxa,  corona, 
Pro  servis  Dominus  redimendis  hostia  factus, 

In  te  suspendens  *  per  lignum  toxica  ligni  [*  leg.  suspensus, 

Purgavit,  clauste  reserando  limina  vitas." 

The  twelve  concluding  lines  contain  the  petition  for  preservation 
and  purification  from  the  defilement  of  the  seven  or  eight  principal 
vices : 

"  Protege  nos  jugiter  ventosse  laudis  ab  aura, 

Et  nobis  dignas  confer  tibi  solvere  grates. 

Invidias  maculam  de  mentibus  ablue  nostris, 

Infundens  nobis  ignem  coelestis  amoris  ; 

Ir2e  compescens  stimulos  fac  nos  patientes, 

Tristitiamque  fugans,  in  damnis  spam  retinentcs. 

Crimen  avaritias  nobis  dona  fugiamus, 

Ut  pietatis  opus  placitse  tibi  ferre  queamus ; 

Ingluviem  ventris  nos  vincere  sobrietate 

Luxuriaeque  luem  casto  concede  pudore, 

Ut  per  te  mundi,  per  te  quoque  viribus  aucti, 

Constanter  vitam  studeamus  adire  supernam." 


IX. 

The  Sign  of  the  returning  Son  of  Man. — Matt,  xxiv,  30. 
(To  p.  362.) 

The  earliest,  or  certainly  one  of  the  earliest,  of  those  who  maintain 
that  the  a-rjfjieiov  Tov  vlov  tcu  dvOpwirov  is  to  be  referred  to  the  Cross 
of  Christ,  does  the  unknown  author  of  the  homily  I?e  co7isummatione 
Mundi  et  de  Antichristo,  current  under  the  name  of  Hippolytus, 
appear  to  be  :  ".  .  .  Oritur  ab  Oriente  usque  ad  Occidentem  signum 
crucis  superantis  splendorem  Solis,  denuncians  adventum  et  appa- 
ritionem  Judicis,"  etc.  {Bibl.  Patr.  Lugd.,  tom.  iii.,  p.  257  G.) 
This  writer  was  first  followed  in  the  West  by  Hilary  of  Pictavium, 


430  THE   CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

who — in  his  commentary  on  Matthew  (c.  26) — describes  in  lofty  and 
powerful  discourse  the  glorious  coming  of  Christ,  and  in  doing  so 
speaks  inter  alia  of  the  "light  upon  the  tree,  which  sheds  its  lustre 
upon  all,"  (lucens  universis  lumen  in  ligno).  In  like  manner  Jerome 
{Comin.  in  Matt,  xxiv.),  who  however  leaves  the  choice  open  between 
interpreting  it  of  the  cross,  or  of  some  other  banner  of  victory  : 
"  Signum  hie  aut  crucis  intelligamus,  ut  videant  (juxta  Zachariam  et 
Joannem)  Jud?ei  quem  compunxerunt  ;  aut  vexillum  victoriae  trium- 
phantis."  In  the  genuine  writings  of  Augustine  there  is  found  no 
interpretation  in  this  sense  of  the  passage  in  question — Serni.  130  de 
Tempore  is  pseudo-Augustinian,  an  excerpting  translation  of  Chrysos- 
tom's  Ho77iil.  de  cruce  et  latr. 

In  the  East,  it  is,  after  Ephraem  [Orat.  de  adparitione  crucis 
te?npore  Judicii),  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  [Catech.,  xv.,  p.  521  c.  in  torn.  iv. 
Bibl.  Patr.  Lngd.),  and  the  author  of  the  eighth  book  of  the 
Sibylline  Oracles, — which  interprets  the  passage  (Psalm  xcvi.  10,. 
LXX.)  Regnabit  Doininus  a  ligno  of  the  appearing  again  one  day  of 
the  cross  as  a  sign  of  triumph  in  the  sky  [Sibyll.,  viii.  245  sq.) 
— specially  Chrysostom,  who  in  several  passages  of  his  writings 
advocates  this  view.  More  briefly  does  he  express  himself  with 
regard  to  it  in  his  homilies  upon  Matthew,  where  he  only 
deduces  the  conclusion  that  the  sign  of  the  cross,  beaming  more 
brightly  than  the  sun,  will  appear  at  the  Parousia  to  the  reproving 
conviction  (Trpos  tk^yxov)  of  the  unbelieving  Jews  ;  like  the  wounds 
which  the  Lord  will  manifest  to  them  in  His  body.  [Horn.  IxxVii. 
in  Matt.  ;  torn,  vii.,  Oj>J).)  More  at  large,  and  with  much  greater 
dogmatic  explicitness,  does  he  treat  of  this  one  day  reappearing 
of  the  cross  in  Horn.  ii.  de  cruce  et  latrone,  §  4  {Oj>p.,  tom.  ii.,  p.  417), 
where  he  is  daring  enough  to  represent  the  Lord  as  ?iot  having  left  on 
earth  at  all  the  Cross  on  which  He  suffered,  but  having  taken  it  up 
7vith  Him  into  heaven  :  (^ovXcl  fxaOelv  7raJ9  koL  jSao-iXeia?  av/x^oXov  6 
crarpos  Kai  Trois  aefjivov  to  irpay^a  lariv ;  ovk  dcjirJKei'  avrov  etvai  lin 
TTj'i  y^s,  aXK  avidiraa-ev  avrov,  koi  cts  tov  ovpavov  eLvij-yayc.  UoOcv 
SrjXov  TOVTO ;  fi€T  avTov  fjieXXeL  epx^o-Oai  iv  rfj  Sevrepa  irapovo-Lo.,  k.t.X. 
He  then  describes,  in  detail,  how  sun,  moon,  and  stars  are  eclipsed 
by  the  far-shining  radiance  of  the  cross,  how  the  host  of  angels  and 
archangels  bear  in  triumph  the  resplendent  symbol  before  the  Lord, 
and  how  the  terrors  of  judgment  fall  upon  all  the  tribes  on  earth  at 
the  sight  of  it,  and  on  looking  upon  the  Crucified  and  Risen  One. — 
This  intrepretation  of  Chrysostom  is  generally  followed  by  the  later 
exegetes  of  the  Greek  Oiurch,  specially  closely  by  Euthymius  Ziga- 


APPENDIX.  43  I 

demus  {hi  Matt,  xxiv)  :  2?7/AeTov  avrov  Aeyet  tov  crTavpov,  XafxirovTa  Tore 
Tov  7]Xlov  ttoAAw  (f^acSpoTepov  •  €K€tvos  fiev  -yap  (TKOTLO-Orja-eTai,  ouros  8e 
^avT;creTat.  tivos  8c  eveKev  oe^^rycrerat ;  tVa  rapa^y  7rpor]yovfxevov<;  jxkv 
Tovs  louSatoi;?,  cira  Kai  tow?  '  EAXT/va?,  oo-ot  tw  ^^pto-rw  tov  crravpov 
wvclSi^ov,  /cat  tra  yi^wcrti/,  oVt  auros  oStos  Kareio-t  ©cos  wv. — Silllilarly, 
only  more  briefly,  already  Theophylact. 

The  theology  too  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  religious  poetry 
of  the  West,  frequently  adopts  the  conclusions  of  Chrysostom  or 
of  those  his  predecessors  in  poetry  and  prose.  That  which  is  sung 
in  Anglo-Saxon  measure  in  Kynewulfs  "Christ,"  v.  iioo  ff.,  of  the 
judicial  majesty  of  the  Lord  at  the  last  day  (Grein,  Dichtungen  der 
Anglss.,  i.  178  f)  : 

'*  He  will  recompense  then, 
severely  take  again  for  all  this, 
luken  the  red  Cross  set  up  shines, 
above  the  natiotis  all  glittering,  in  place  of  the  sun,  . 
to  which  then  fearful,  by  wickedness  undone, 
the  black  sinners  look  up  with  awe,"  etc.; 

that  which  the  unknown  monkish  coxn^o^ox  o{  Seb  halge  rod  ^Q.%Q.r^t% 
in  an  entirely  similar  manner  at  the  close  of  his  poetic  vision  (Grein, 
ii.  144;  Bach,  Dogmengesch.  des M.  A.,  i.  85) ;  that  which  is  advanced 
in  the  same  sense  in  the  Expositt.  in  Evangelia  of  the  Venerable 
Bede  (t  735),  at  the  exposition  of  Matt,  xxiv.,  all  shapes  itself  in 
accordance  with  an  unvarying  tradition,  recurring  in  most  of  the 
descriptions  of  the  eschatological  events  on  the  part  of  the  more  dis- 
tinguished representatives  of  the  Latin  theology  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Comp.,  e.g.,  the  Frogftostic.  rerum  futur.  of  the  Archbishop  Julian 
of  Toledo  (or  Pomerius,  t  about  690),  lib.  iii.  c.  5  :  "  Domino  de 
scendente  de  coelis,  prcEcedet  exercitus  angelorum  et  archangelorum, 
qui  signum  illud  triumphale,  crucis  vexillum,  sublimibus  humeris 
prseferentes,  divinum  regis  coelestis  ingressum  terris  trementibus 
nunciabunt,"  etc.  {Bibl.  Pair.  Lugd.,  t.  xii.,  p.  605.)  Similarly  Peter 
the  Venerable  of  Clugny  (f  1156),  in  his  Epist.  contra  Petrobusianos 
{ih.,  t.  xxii.,  f.  1055  H.),  in  which  the  sect  of  Peter  de  Bruys,  hostile 
to  the  use  of  the  cross,  is  threateningly  reminded  of  that  appearing 
one  day  of  the  crux  Domini:  "  Fulgebit  in  coelo,  ut  discant  terrigense 
non  posse  sibi  conscensum  esse  ad  coelos,  nisi  per  ipsam  ;  et  agno- 
scant  filii  hominum  non  nisi  per  ipsam  se  posse  fiere  socios 
angelorum.  Non  est  igitur  honoranda  ab  hominibus,  quae  angelicum 
eis  honorem  praeparat  ?  Non  est  glorificanda  mortalibus,  quae 
immortalem  eis  gloriam  prsestat?" — Thomas  Aquinas  {Cat.  Aur.,  in 


432  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

Matt,  xxiv.)  looks  for  a  manifestation  of  the  cross  as  the  judicial  act 
in  condemning  the  ungodly  at  the  last  judgment  ;  and  Thomas  k 
Kempis  opens  the  section  of  his  Imitatio  Christi  which  exhorts  to  the 
entering  upon  the  via  regia  crucis  (lib.  ii.  c  12)  with  a  warning 
reference  to  the  eventual  appearing  of  that  symbol  of  salvation 
despised  by  men  at  the  act  of  judgment,  when  none  but  the  servants 
of  the  cross,  the  lowly  followers  of  the  Crucified,  will  appear  with  joy 
before  His  judgment-seat. — In  the  Romish  Officium  S.  Crucis,  too, 
allusion  is  made  to  the  appearing  again  of  the  cross  one  day  :  "  Hoc 
signum  crucis  erit  in  coelo,  cum  Dominus  ad  judicandum  venerit." 
Many  Catholic  theologians  also  of  more  recent  times  defend  the 
referring  of  the  a-t]\x.€iov  tov  v'lov  rov  dvOpomov  expressly  to  the 
cross.  So  Salmeron,  who  (as  already  earlier  Thomas  Aquinas,  Opusc. 
ii.,  c.  244)  speaks  of  the  other  instruments  of  the  Lord's  sufferings  as 
appearing  with  the  cross  in  the  sky  ;  Jansen,  who  speaks  not  of  the 
material  cross  of  Calvary  itself  as  becoming  visible  at  the  Parousia, 
but  (as  already  some  earlier  writers,  e.g.,  in  the  pseudo-Anselmian 
Elticidariiini)  merely  of  some  kind  of  representation  thereof ;  Mal- 
donatus,  Cornelius  a  Lapide,  etc.  (Compare  the  latter  on  Matt,  xxiv.) 
This  reference  of  the  0-77/^.  t.  v\.  t.  dv$p.  to  the  Cross  of  Christ 
did  not  pass  over  to  the  exegetical  tradition  of  Protestantism. 
Luther,  in  his  sermons  upon  the  Advent-pericope,  Luke  xxi.  25 — ^6, 
interprets  the  signs  in  the  heavens  there  spoken  of,  in  regard  to 
catastrophes  of  nature  of  every  kind,  and  mentions  on  one  occasion 
as  belonging  to  them,  i/Uer  alia,  "  much  stranger  forms  of  rainbows 
and  other  signs,  cross,  two  or  three  suns,  shooting  stars,  comets 
following  each  other,  fiery  skies,  blood-red  suns,"  etc. ;  but  yet  in 
all  this  remains  as  far  as  possible  from  the  early  Church  conception 
of  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man,  as  the  cross  of  Christ,  concealed 
for  the  time  being  in  heaven,  and  one  day  in  glorified  form  appearing 
in  the  sky.  (Erl.  edn.,  Bd.  i.,  S.  112.)  John  Brenz  {Comm.  in  Matt.) 
supposes  the  signum  filii  hominis  to  be  =  "  filius  hominis  ipsemet,  ea 
forma  qua  ascensurus  est  in  coelum,"  etc.  Calvin  {in  Matt.  xxiv.  30) 
inclines  to  regard  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  as  the  Son  of  Man 
Himself,  as  He,  the  once  lowly  one,  will  come  again  upon  the 
clouds  of  heaven.  Farel  {Du  vray  usage  de  la  Croix  de  J.  Christ, 
p.  135),  expressly  polemicises  against  the  interpreting  the  passage 
v/ith  reference  to  the  cross ;  appealing  to  the  Op.  imperfect,  in  Matt., 
in  which  Christ  Himself  is  represented  as  the  sign  of  the  Son 
of  Man,  and  this  indeed  as  the  result  of  a  much  more  probable 
interpretation  than  the  well-known  one  of  Chrysostom  which  became 


APPENDIX.  433 

iraditionally  accepted.  The  great  bulk  of  the  Protestant  exegetes 
of  the  first  two  centuries  after  the  Reformation  leave  it  altogether 
undetermined  what  is  to  be  understood  by  this  arjixelov  of 
Matt.  xxiv.  30.  Only  some  few  decide  in  favour  of  the  ancient 
churchly  interpretation  of  the  cross ;  so,  in  the  Reformed  Church, 
Clarius  (see  Critici  sacri),  and,  on  the  Lutheran  side,  Joh.  Gerhard. 
The  latter  opposes,  indeed,  that  grosser  form  of  the  traditional 
conception,  according  to  which  the  material  cross  of  Calvary  is 
itself  to  form  the  subject  of  the  miraculous  appearing  in  the  sky. 
(So,  e.g.,  Thomas  Waldensis,  De  sacratn.,  tit.  20,  c.  158;  Gregory 
de  Valentia;  Bessseus;  Joh.  Osorius  ;  Blasius  de  Viega,  etc.,  etc.) 
But  against  the  more  ideal  supposition  of  an  immense  cross  of 
light  appearing  in  the  sky  he  has  no  serious  objections  to  bring. 
"  Nee  injuria  quis  cogitare  possit,  crucem  adparituram  tanquam 
fontem  omnis  glorire,  quae  in  die  judicii  piis  obtinget,  quia  Christi 
in  cruce  passio  et  ignominia  est  summa  piorum  gloria."  {Locorum 
theol.,  tom.  xix.,  p.  271;  cf  283:  ed.  Cotta.)  In  the  Berleburg 
Bible,  too,  there  is  manifest  a  certain  incUnation  to  the  old  churchly 
interpretation,  although  this  is  greatly  spiritualised  :  "Godly  antiquity 
explains  this  of  the  sign  of  the  cross,  which  indeed  is  the  real 
characteristic  of  all  true  members  of  Christ ;   in  reproach,   denial 

and  dying  to  all  things Yet  in   connection   herewith   it   is 

to  be  observed  that  the  ancients  understood  the  sign  of  the  cross 
not  as  a  separate  thing — das  Zeichen  des  Creutzes  nicht  als  eine 
particularitat — as  though  Christ  would  have  a  wooden  cross  in  His 

hand (Rather)  :  "  The   Son   of  Man  will  bring   the  sign  of 

His  former  lowliness  with  Him  in  His  glory." — Within  the  most 
recent  times  single  orthodox  expositors  of  Scripture  have  declared 
again  in  favour  of  the  realistic  sense  advocated  by  Chrysostom  : 
so,  e.g.,  the  Calw  Handbk,  of  Biblic.  Expositn.  (2nd  edn.);  and 
A.  W.  Assmann,  Das  Evangel,  des  Ap.  Matthaus  (Kassel,  1874), 
H.  ii.,  S.  74  ("an  enormously  large  cross,"  etc.) 

Of  the  divergent  interpretations  we  give  here  only  the  principal 
ones. 

{a)  The  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  is  explained  to  be  properly 
speaking  a  victorious  banner,  and  not  the  cross  itself.  So,  besides 
Jerome,  as  above  (see  p.  430),  specially  pseudo-Augustine,  Serm. 
130  de  Tempore:  "  Sicut  imperatorem  regalis  pompa  prjecedit  .... 
sic  Domino  de  coelo  veniente  angelorum  ccetus  et  archangelorum 
multitudo  illud  signum  portant  humeris  excelsis  et  regalem  nobis 
adventum  nunciant,"  etc. 

28 


434  THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST. 

{b)  As  a  7niraculosa  qucedam  stella,  similar  to  that  which  was  seen 
in  the  constellation  Cassiopea  in  1572-73,  was  this  sign  regarded  by 
^^gidius  Hunnius  in  his  Commentary  on  Matthew.  (Comp.  Joh. 
Gerhard,  /.  c.)  Some  writers  too  of  recent  times  suppose  a  star 
of  miraculous  character,  an  eschatological  counterpart  to  the  star  of 
the  Magi,  to  be  here  intended :  e.g.,  Fleck  [De  regno  divind),  H. 
Olshausen  {Bibl.  Conwientar),  also  F.  Bleek  {Synopt.  Comment.^,  who 
see  an  allusion  to  the  star  which  "shall  arise  out  of  Jacob,"  Num. 
xxiv.  17  ;  whilst  exegetes  of  the  period  of  the  earlier  supranaturalism 
and  its  conflict  with  rationalism,  as  Eisner  and  Romberg,  see  the 
natural  phenomenon  of  a  comet  to  be  here  indicated. 

(c)  Of  the  Doxa  of  the  returning  Messiah  did  Origen  think  [Tract. 
XXX.  /;/  Matt.)  as  the  Sign  of  the  Son  of  Man.  So  in  substance  also 
Bengel  in  his  Gnomon:  ".  .  .  .  Signum,  coll.  Marc.  xiii.  26,  4,  est 
pompa  advenientis  Filii  hominis,  qui  ipse  mox  adspiciendus  dicitur 
h.  1," — Similarly,  but  more  vague  and  undetermined,  De  Wette 
("  a  sort  of  Shechina  "),  and  Meyer  ("  a  light-phenomenon,  the  first 
radiance  of  the  Messianic  doxa ;  perhaps  becoming  ever  more  radiant 
and  glorious,  until  the  Messiah  Himself  comes  forth  from  it  in  His 
glory  ").  Entirely  the  same  as  Origen  again,  J.  P.  Lange  :  "  Why  not 
the  Shechina  or  Sofa  of  the  Messiah  himself?  The  splendour  of 
the  appearing  in  general  to  be  distinguished  from  the  personal 
appearing  itself,"  etc.  Simil.  V.  Hofmann  in  his  "  Schriftbeweis," 
ii.  2,  585. 

[d)  The  Messiah,  or  Son  of  Man  Himself,  is  intended  by  the 
"  Sign  of  the  Son  of  Man,"  according  to  the  Op.  imperfect,  in  Matt., 
as  also  Brenz,  Calvin,  and  Farel  (see  above),  substantially  also  accord- 
ing to  Starke,  Synops.  ad  h.  /.,  who  sees  indicated  by  this  expression 
either  the  Son  of  Man  Himself,  or  at  least  the  "  powerful  manifesta- 
tion that  He  has  risen  from  the  dead,  and  has  received  power  over 
all  things."  Comp.  also  Wolf  and  Storr  {Opiisc,  iii.  36),  who  suppose 
a  genitive  of  apposition  (the  sign,  namely — or  which  consists  in — the 
Son  of  Man),  Fritzsche,  who  makes  it  a  genitive  of  the  subject 
("  miraculum  quod  Jesus  revertens  Messias  oculis  objiciet "),  Morus, 
Rosenmuller,  Ewald,  and  others. 

((f)  An  apparition  resembling  a  man,  which  is  said  to  have  been 
seen  during  a  whole  night  in  the  Most  Holy  Place  of  the  Temple,  at 
the  time  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  would  Rud.  Hofmann 
("  Die  Wiederkunft  Christi  und  das  Zeichen  des  Menschensohnes," 
Leipzig,  1850),  following  a  Jewish  fable  of  Ben-Goria,  see  indicated 
by  the  a-q/jiuov.     See  on  the  other  hand  Meyer  ad  loc. 


APPENDIX.  43  5 

(/)  A  strange  apocalyptically  misinterpreting,  and  yet  spiritualis- 
tically  subtilising  exposition  (rightly  lashed  by  Calov  and  others) 
attempted  by  Grotius,  with  the  approval  of  Polus  in  his  Sytiopsis  : 
the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  is  identical  with  the  white  horse  in  the 
Apocalypse  (Rev.  xix.  ii),  and  this  in  turn  denotes  the  pura  evange- 
licDS  doctrine  prsedicatio  !  For  of  this  Christ  is  supposed  to  prophesy 
in  our  passage  :  "  post  tot  corruptees  mira  quadam  efificacia  earn 
restituendam  esse,  per  ministerium  illorum  testium,  qui  venturi  sunt 
in  spiritu  Mosis  et  Elias." 

{g)  Schott,  Kuinoel,  and  some  others,  seek  to  identify  that  which  is 
spoken  of  in  the  preceding  verse  (v.  29)  with  the  "Sign  of  the  Son 
of  Man  ; "  thus  to  subtilise  this  latter  entirely  into  the  indefinite. 

{h)  Some  kind  of  sign  not  more  nearly  determinable,  which  also 
might  possibly  be  regarded  as  something  entirely  different  from 
the  Sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  (as  something  '•  which  a  man  may 
behold  without  knowing  that  with  this  the  manifestation  of  the 
Son  of  God  begins"),  would  Stier  see  indicated  in  this  passage. 
(Comp.  also  Olshausen  ad  loc.) — Rightly  has  it  been  remarked  by 
Von  Hofmann  (/.  c),  in  opposition  to  these  last-mentioned  interpre- 
tations, which  refine  away  every  concrete  sense  of  the  expression, 
that  in  any  case  some  sign,  as  to  the  connection  of  which  with 
the  historic  appearing  of  the  Crucified  and  Risen  One  no  doubt  is 
possible,  must  here  be  intended ;  "  since  at  least  at  the  sight  thereof 
the  waihng  of  the  generations  of  men  not  looking  for  Jesus,  not 
expecting  Him,  at  once  begins."  Compare  our  previous  obserxations 
in  the  text. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Adoration  of  the  Cross,  Festival  of  the    -        -        -        -        -        -     170 

Agobard,  Archb.  of  Lyons  (816 — 840)      ------     178 

Agrippa  of  Nettesheim,  Mystic  writer  (d.  1535)        -         -         -      238,327 
Alba  Longa,  Vases  of-        -        -        -        -        -        -        -         '       ^9 

Albigenses  (cent.  12  and  13) 174;  228 

Albertus  Magnus  (d.  1280),  Saying  of      -----        -     228 

Alcuin,  Abbot  of  Tours  (d.  804) 206 

Alexius  I.,  Emperor  of  the  East  (d.  1118) I73 

Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan  (d.  397)  -         -         -        148,164,213,245 

America,  Pre-Christian  Cross  in       -----        -  24,  25 

Anastasius  Sinaiticus,  Syrian  monk  (d.  about  650)  -      197,  219,  243 

Ancient  British  coins,  bearing  a  cruciform  em.blcm  -        -        -       19 

Andreas  of  Crete      ...-----.-     249 

Andrew,  St.,  Cross  of---- 65 

Angela  of  Foligno,  Itahan  nun  (d.  1309)  -----     254 

Angekis  Silesius,  Christian  poet  and  mystic  (d.  1677)      -        -     321,  326 
Ansate  Cross  of  the  Egyptians  -         -        -         -        -        -  I5I31 

„  „      of  Buddhistic  India    -...---9 

„  „      Significance  of  the      -        -         -        -        -         -  -,  ^S 

Anselm,  Archb.  of  Canterbury  (1093 — 1109) 251 

Anthony,  St.,  Egyptian  ascetic  (d.  356) 117 

,,  „     Cross  of ----65 

Antoninus  Pius,  Roman  emperor  (138 — 161),  Persecutions  under      -     in 

ApoUinaris,  St.,  Church  of,  in  Ravenna  196 

Apostolic  Church,  The,  a  model  for  all  subsequent  ages  -         -        -     107 
Apostolic  constitutions  (end  of  cent.  2,  to  cent.  4)    -        -        -      n6,  163 
Aquino,  Thomas  Count  of  (d.  1274)         ------     265 

Armenians  (cent.  11  and  12)  -        -        -        -        -        -164,  173 

Arndt,  John,  of  Anhalt,  writer  of  Trtee  Christianity  (d.  1621)  290,  307,  330 
Artemidorus  (fl.  time  of  the  Antonines)  on  the  mode  of  cruci.^xion      96  n. 
Assyrians,  Crucifixions  among  the    -         -        -        -        -        -        "55 

AthanasiuS;  Bp.  of  Alexandria  (d.  373)     -        -        -,       -        -        -    242 


438  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Attic  coins,  bearing  a  cruciform  emblem  -        -        -         -         -       15 

Augustine,  Bp.  of  Hippo  (d.  430)  -  -  -  153,  161,  164,  172,  245 
Aurelius  (Marcus  Aurel.  Antoninus,  161 — 180),  Persecutions  under  -  iii 
Aurelius  Victor,  Latin  historian  (fl.  358)  -         -         -        -         -  65  n. 

Aurungzebe  (d.  1707),  Buddhist  temple  destroyed  by        -        -        -       13 

Babylonian-Assyrian  crosses --6 

Bach,  Joh.  Sebastian  (d.  1750),  Passion  music  of     -        -        -         -     315 

Bactrian  Labarum  Cross  -         -         -         -        -        -        -        -15 

Balccus  (abt.  430),  Prayer  recorded  by      -----        -     244 

Balde,  James  (d.  1668),  Poems  of-         -        -        -        -        -        -315 

Baronius,  Ccesar,  Cardinal  (b.  1538,  d.  1607) 302 

Bartholomeo,  Fra.,  Italian  painter  (d.  1517)     -----     311 

Basil,  Bp.  of  Neoc^sarea  (d.  379  or  380)  -        -        -        -      116,243 

Beda  Venerabilis  (d.  735)  -         -         -         -        -        -         -        -    431 

Beethoven,  Ludwig  v.  (d.  1827),  Passion  music  of    -         -        -        -     315 

Bellarmine,  Robert,  Cardinal  (b.  1542,  d.  1621)        -        -        -        -     302 

Bengal,  Joh.  Alb.  (d.  1752)       - 338 

Bernard,  Abbot  of  Clairvaux  (d.  115 3)  -  -  -  -  -216,252 
Berthold  of  Regensburg,  Franciscan  monk  (d.  1272)  .  -  -  255 
Beza,    Theodore,   Theologian   of  the   Reformed    Church  (b.    1519, 

d.  1605)  --..---.--     300 

Boehme,  Jacob,  German  mystic  (b.  1575,  d.  1624)  -  -  -  -  328 
Bogumili  (cent.  12)  -         -         -         -         -         -        -        -        -173 

Bonaventura  (d.  1274) 207,216,253 

Borgia,  Stephen,  Cardinal  (d.  1804),  Researches  of  -         -      194,  308 

Bosio,  Antonio,  the  Columbus  of  the  Catacombs  (d.  1629)        -        -     305 
Bozethecus,  Bohemian  abbot  (about  1086)        -----     231 

Brant,  Sebastian  (d.  1520),  Passion  poetry  of  -----     217 

Brenz,  John,  Lutheran  theologian  (d.  1570)      -----     286 

Brethren  of  the  Cross  (cent.  14)        ------         -     232 

Brigitta,  St.,  Swedish  ascetic  (d.  1373)      -        -         -         -      204,  238,  258 

Buddhists,  Northern,  Belief  of  in  a  western  paradise        -        -        -       11 

Caedmon,  monk  of  Whitby  (d.  abt.  680),  Poems  of  -        -        -    219 

Calbulus,  African  grammarian  (fl.  abt.  500)  -  -  -  -  -  214 
Calderon,  Pedro,  Spanish  dramatist  (d.  1687)  -        _        -        .     225 

Calvin,  John  (b.  1509,  d.  1564) 291,  299 

Cano,  Alonso,  Spanish  painter  (d.  1665)  -         -        -        -        -        -311 

Caracci,  Annibal  (b.  1560,  d.  1609)  -        -        -        -        -        -        -311 

„        Louis  (b.  1555,  d.  1619)       -------     311 

Carolingian  Age  (751 — 987)      - 186 

Carthaginians,  Crucifixion  among  the  -  -  -  -  -50,  S~)  58 
Cassian,  John,  Abbot  of  Marseilles  (d.  abt.  440)  -  -  -  228,  230 
Charles  the  Great  (Charlemagne,  d.  814)  .        -        .        -     164,177 


INDEX. 


439 


PAH  F, 

Chemnitz,  Martin,  Lutheran  theologian  (d.  15S9)      -         -         .         _     298 

Childebert,  King  of  the  Franks  (511 — 55S) 186 

Chosroes  II.,  King  of  Persia  (590 — 628) 168 

Christian  art  in  the  Early  Church 124  ft". 

„        (or  Latin)  Cross,  The         --.--..       68 

„  „  „      Typical  form  in  Church  architecture    1S4 — 189 

Chrysostom,  John,  of  Constantinople  (d.  407)    -         -       149,  152,  243,  250 

Chytraus,  David,  Luth.  theologian  (d.  i6oo) 289 

Cimabue,  Italian  painter  (d.  1300)  -_-...     203 

Claude,  Bp.  of  Turin  (d.  839)  -         -         -         -         -         -         -177 

Clement  of  Alexandria  (d.  abt.  220)  -         -         -         ,       123^  131^  2i[ 

Climacus,  John  (d.  606)    - -     229 

Clotaire  I.  (511— 561)       ...--.-...     157 
Colonna,  Vittoria,  Marchioness  of  Pescara  (d.  1547)         -        .        .     316 

Commodian  of  Gaza,  Christ,  poet  (cent.  4) 123 

Constantine  (d.  337),  His  Vision  of  the  Cross  (27  Oct.,  312)      -         137  ft". 
„  Change  in  the  conduct  of,  from  this  time        -        -      139,  146 

„  Cross  erected  by -        -192 

„  v.,  Copronymus  (741—775)   - 177 

„  VII.,  Porpyrogenitus  (91 1— 959) 19S 

Corpus  Christi,  Festival  of  (first  enjoined  1264)         ....     223 

Correggio,  Antonio,  Italian  painter  (d.  1534) 311 

Cranach,  Lucas,  Germ,  painter  (d.  Oct.  16,  1553)    -         -         -         -     312 

Cross,  The,  Impression  produced  by  the  form  of      -         -         -         -     iSi 

„         „     in  later  Christian  Song  -         -         -         -         -  315  ff- 

„        „     represented  as  the  Tree  of  Life      -        -        -      193,  203,  207 

„         „     Words  of  Christ  upon  ...,.-       gj 

Cross  of  Malta  -         -         -        -        -         -         -         -         -         7,158 

Crosses  afforded  an  asylum  for  transgressors 165 

„        were  not  directly  depicted  on  early  Chr.  monuments  -         -     224 

Crucesignation 115,  '61 

Crucifixes,  Introduction  of  (sec.  half  of  cent.  6)         .        _        .         -     125 

Crucifixion,  Deeper  import  of  the  punishment  of      -         -         -  5i)  75 

„  as  represented  by  the  Heathen  caricaturist  (beginning 

of  cent.  3) "5 

„  Practice  of,  abolished  by  the  Christian  emperors    -        65,145 

„  of  Christ,  History  of  the         -----        9-— 97 

Crucifixions  of  early  Christians         -        -        -         -         -        -         iioff. 

Cruciform  figures  of  the  Assyrians,  etc.     ------         7 

Crusades  (1096 — 1291) ,.-     158 

Crux,  Probable  derivation  of  the  term      -----   53  n.,  408 

„     commissa        ----------66 

„     decussata         ------         .---65 

„     immissa  ._- --68 

„     transiens  or  usualis  -        -         -        -         -        -        "        -i^S 


440  INDEX.- 

PAGE 

Cruces  dissimulatas  -        -        -        -        -        -        -         119  ff.,  131 

„  „  Motive  which  urges  to  seek  these  -  -  123,133 
„      stationales     - --      167,  192 

Cyprian,  Bp.  of  Carthage  (d,  258)     -        -         -         -        116,123,164,214 

Cyril,  Bp.  of  Alexandria  (412 — 444)  ------     243 

„      Bp.  of  Jerus.  (348— 386) 148,242 

Cyrillonas,  Syrian  Christian  father  (fl.  abt.  400)        -        -        -      212,  243 

Dallaeus  or  DailM,  John,  Theolog.  Ref.  Ch.  (d.  1670)        ...     307 
Damasus  I.,  Pope  (366 — 384)  ------         211  n. 

Damiano,  Peter,  Cardinal  Legate  (d.  1072)       -         -         -      216,  229,  232 

Dante  Alighieri  (b.  1265,  d.  1 321) 39,222,264 

Decius,  Rom.  emperor  (249 — 251),  Persecutions  under     -        -  iiof. 

De  Wette,  W.  M.  L.  (d.  1849),  his  conception  of  the  import  of  the 

death  of  Christ 344 

Dioclesian  (C.  Valerius  Diocletianus,  emperor  284 — 305),  Persecu- 
tions under         -  iiof. 

Discovery  of  the  Cross  {Inventio  S.  Criicis),  Festival  of  the     -      169,  214 
Dominicus,  Mediaeval  ascetic  -------     232 

Douze-Tems,  French  mystic  (wrote  in  1732)     -         -         -         -         -     331 

Druids,  Cruciform  emblems  among  the  -         -         -        -         -       15 

„        Tree  of  the  Cross  among  the       -        -        -        -        -         20,77 

Diirer,  Albert  (b.  147 1,  d.  1528) 312 

Dushan,  Stephen,  King  of  Servia  (d.  abt.  1350)         -        -         -        .     1^7 

Easter  Island,  Colossal  statues  on  --....      22 

Eckart,  Meister,  Germ.  Domin.  monk  (d.  1329)         -        -         -        .     257 

Eden,  Site  of -         -         -  35^  ^^  ^ga 

Edict  of  Milan  (313) 139 

Editha,  English  ascetic  (cent.  10)     ------        -     230 

Egyptian  coins,  bearing  a  cruciform  emblem    -         -         -         -        -       15 

Egyptians,  Crucifixions  among  the  -----         .       5^ 

Encolpia 157,  194 

Ephraem  Syrus  (d.  378) -         -         -      129,  243 

Epiphanius,  Bp.  of  Constantia  in  Cyprus  (d.  403)  -  -  86,  87,  163,  21S 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  Author  of,  on  the  death  of  Christ  -  -  105 
Erigena,  John  Scotus,  Scholastic  theologian  (d.  abt.  874)  -  -  216 
Euchites,  Later  (cent,  u)         --------     17^ 

Eusebius,  Bp.  of  Caesarea  (d.  338) 136,  137,  144 

Eustathius,  Archb.  of  Thessalonica  (d.  1194)  -----     234 

Eutychius,  Patr.  of  Constantinople  (d.  582) 168 

Exaltation  of  the  Cross,  Festival  of  the    ------     168 

"  Extern  Stones "  near  Horn ---     i^g 

Farel,  Wm.,  Swiss  RefOTmer  (b.  14S9,  d.  1565)         .        -         .         .     299 


INDEX.  441 

PAGE 

Feet,  Nailing  of  the,  in  crucifixion  ------      204,415 

Felix  IV.,  Pope  (526-530)       --------     201 

Fiesole,  Giovanni  da  (d.  1455)  -        -        -        -        -         -      204,  264 

Flacius,  Matthias,  Lutheran  theologian  (d.  1575)      -        -        -        -     302 

Fragments  of  the  True  Cross  -         -         -         -        -         -       149,  194,  198 

Francis  of  Assisi  (b.  1182,  d.  1226)' -         -     235 

Franck,  Sebastian,  Germ,  mystic  (d.  1543) 327 

Frederick  II.,  Emp.  of  Germany  (121 5 — 1250)  -        -        -        -     221 

Frederick  V.,.  Elector  Palatine  (d.  1632) 301 

Fulbert,  Bp.  of  Chartres  (d.  1028) 2i5 

Fulda,  Monastery  of  (founded  744) ^     206 

Furca,  as  an  instrument  of  punishment    ------      63 

Galla  Placidia  (consort  of  Theodosius  the  Great),  Cross  of      -        -     193 
Gallus  (d.  640),  pupil  of  Columba,  founded  the  monastery  of  St.  Gall 

in  614 -     159 

Garcilaso  de  la  Vega  (b.  1530,  d.  1568)   ------       23 

Gelasius  I.,  Pope  (492 — 496)   -- 169 

Gerhard,  John,  Luth.  theologian  (d.  1637),  on  the  Christian's  cross-     290 

Gerson,  John  (d.  1429) 259 

Giotto  of  Florence  (d.  1336) 204 

Giunto  Pisano  (fl.  12 10 — 1236)         -------     203 

Gnupson,  Erich,  Missionary  journey  of    -         -        -        -        -        -       26 

Gothic  architecture.  Prevailing  idea  in 189 

Gozzo,  Large  crosses  on  ---------7 

Gratian,  Rom.  emperor  (367 — 383)-         -'-        -        -         -         -156 

Greek,  or  St.  George's,  Cross  -        -        -        -        -        -        -        17,  168 

Gregentius,  Archb.  of  Taphar  (d.  552)      -        -        -        -        -         -171 

Gregory  I.  (the  Great),  Pope  (590 — 604)  -         -  67,  125,  170,  214,  247 

„        IV.,  Pope  (827— 844) -     206 

„        VII.  (Hildebrand),  Pope  (1073 — 1085)        -        -        -        -     229 
„        of  Nazianzus  (d.  389  or  390)        -----      212,243 

„        Bp.  of  Nyssa  (d.  abt.  396) 243  f. 

„        Bp.  of  Tours  (573 — 595) 161  n.,  186 

Gretser,  James,  Jesuit  critic  and  archaeologist  (d.  1625)    115,  118,  249,  303 
Gualbert  of  Vallombrosa  (cent,  n)-        -        -        -        -        -        -     22S 

Hadrian,  Rom.  emperor  (117 — 138),  Persecutions  under  -        -  -  in 

Hamann,  Joh.  Georg,  Mystic  theologian  (d.  1788)  -        -        -  -  336 

Handel,  Georg  Friedr.  (d.  1759),  Passion  music  of  -        -        -  -  315 

Harms,  Claus  (d.  1855),  favours  the  practice  of  crucesignation  -  309 

Hebrews,  Crucifixions  among  the     -        -        -        -        -         -  -55  ff. 

Helena  (d.  abt.  328),  Pilgrimage  of,  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in  326  -  146 

„                „              Her  discovery  of  the  supposed  wood  of  the  cross  151 

„                 „              Church  of  the  Ascension  built  by    -         -  -  183 


442  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Henry  of  Lausanne  (d.  1 147  or  1 14S)       - 174 

Heraclius,  Emp.  of  the  East  (610— 641)  -         -         -         -         -      168,169 

Herod  I.,  Coins  of -         -         -        -      130,  144 

Herrera,  Span,  historian  (d.  1625)    -        -        -         -         -        -         -       23 

Hesychius  (fl.  380)  -        -         -         -         -        -         -         -'-         -62 

Hilarion,  Palestinean  monk  (d.  abt.  371)  -----     228 

Hilary,  Bp.  of  Poitiers  (d.  367)  -----       413,416,429 

Hildebrand  (z/.  Gregory  VII.,  Pope)         - 229 

Hiltibald,  deacon  (cent.  7),  companion  of  Gallus  in  missionary  work     159 
Hippolytus,  Bp.  of  Portus  on  the  Tiber  (d.  235)       -         -         -         -  65  n. 

Holbein,  Hans  (d.  1554)  -- 312 

Honorius,  Emp.  of  the  West  (395 — 423)-         -        -        -         -         -     156 

Honorius  I.,  Pope  (626 — 638) 169 

Hrabanus  Maurus  (d.  856)       --------     206 

Hiitter,  Leon.,  controversial  theologian  (d.  1616)      -        -        -        -     283 

Iconoclasts,  Council  of  the  (754)      ---._.-     177 

Ignatius,  Bp.  of  Antioch  (d.  under  Trajan)       -         -         -        -  -     120 

Image  controversies  (726 — 869)        -         -         -        -        -        -  -176 

Impalement,  Practice  of-         -         -         -         -         -        -        -  55,  59?  62 

Indians  (East),  Stone  crosses  among  the          -        -        -        -  -  9,  10 

Innocent  III.,  Pope  (i  198 — 1216)    ------  163,175 

Iren^eus,  Bp.  of  Lyons  (d.  under  Septim.  Severus,  a.d.  202)     -  -     122 

Isaac  of  Antioch,  Poetic  homilies  of        -         -        -         -         -  213,  243 

Isidore  of  Seville  (d.  636) 67,  82 

Jacobus  de  Voragine,  author  of  "  The  Golden  Legend"  (d.  1298)  219,  238 
Jacoponus,  Christian  poet  (d.  1306)  -        -        -        -         -         -216 

Jaina  sect,  Antiquity  of  the -         -11 

Jerome  (d.  420)        -         -         - 181,  21 S,  245 

John,  St.,  on  the  death  of  Christ 105 

„         Order  of  (instituted  1099) 158 

John  de  Marignola  (cent.  14)-         -         -         -         -         -         -        -160 

„     of  Damascus  (d.  756) 177,243 

„     of  the  Cross,  Spanish  ascetic  (d.  1 591)     -         -        -       231,317,326 
Jonas,  Justus,  Germ.  Prot.  Reformer  (d.  1555)  .         -         -         -     289 

Jovianus,  Rom.  emperor  (d.  364)      -         -         -         -         -         -         -I43 

Julian,  Rom.  emperor  (361 — 363)     -----       117,128,143 

Julius  Firmicus  Maternus  (fl.  340)   ------     407,  412 

Jung  Stilling,  Germ,  pietist  (d.  181 7)        -        -        -        -        -        -     339 

Justin  II.,  Emperor  of  the  East  (565 — 57S)      -        -        -        -      194,214 

Justin  Martyr,  Christian  apologist  (fl.  150)       -         -         -       116,  120,  121 

Justinian  I.  (the  Great),  Emperor  of  the  East  (527 — 565)         -         -     164 

„  Declension  in  the  character  of  Christianity  from  the 

time  of 154 


INDEX.  443 

PAGE 

Justinian  I.,  Digests  of     ---------      70 

„  Form  of  the  Labarum  under  -        -        -        -        -     156 

Kempis,  Thomas  k  (d.  147 1)    --------  260 

Kingly  significance  of  the  death  of  Christ         -         -         -        -        -  91 

Klopstock,  Friedr.  Theoph.  (d.  1803),  The  Messiah  of  -  -  -  320 
Kynewulf,  Anglo-Saxon  poet  (b.  abt.  725,  d.  towards  the  close  of 

the  cent.)  ---- --  220 

Labarum  cross,  Pre-Christian  form  of  the        -----       16 

„  „       Origin  of  the  - 17 

„  „       of  Constantine  and  his  successoi's  -        -         -  140  ff. 

Lactantius,  Firmianus  (d.  abt.  318)  -        -        -        116,  123,  136,  143 

Las  Casas,  Barthol.  de,  Span,  missionary  to  S.  America  (d.  1566)  -       23 
Lavater,  J.  G.  C,  Swiss  theologian  (d.  1801)  -----     339 

Leo  L,  the  Great,  Pope  (440-461),  Passion  sermons  of     -         -        -     246 
„    IX.,  Pope  (1049— 1054)     --------     199 

„    in. ,  the  Isaurian,  Emperor  of  the  East  (717 — 741)   -        -        -     176 

„    VI.,  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East  (886 — 911)       -        -     250 

Leonardo  da  Vinci  (d.  1520)     --------     310 

Licinius,  Victory  of  Constantine  over  (323)       -         -        -        -      143,  145 

Lipsius,  Justus,  critic  and  archseologist  (d.  1606)      -        -    63,  66,  68,  303 

Lollards  (cent.  14)- -        -176 

Lope  de  la  Vega,  Span,  poet  (d.  1635) 226,  318 

Louis  the  Pious,  Emperor  of  the  West  (814 — 840)  -  -  186,198,206 
Loyola,  Ignatius,  founder  of  the  order  of  Jesuits  (d.  1556)  -  -  324 
Lucas  of  Tuy,  Span,  bishop  (cent.  13),  opponent  of  the  Albigenses  -  175 
Luini,  Bernardino,  Ital.  painter  (d.  after  1530)  -        -        -        -     310 

Luis  de  Leon,  Span,  poet  (d.  1591) 235,  326 

Luther,  Martin  (b.  1483,  d.  1546)     -----       270,295,357 

Macarius,  Bp.  of  Jerusalem  (age  of  Constantine)      -        -        -      148,169 
„  Egyptian  anchorite  (d.  390  or  391)  -         -        -        -        -     228 

Magnentius,  Rom.  emperor  (350 — 353),  Labarum  of         -        -        -     144 
Manichaeans  (arose  abt.  270)   --------     172 

Manuel  Commenus,  Emperor  of  the  East  (i  143— 1 1  So)    -        -        -     174 

Martyr,  Peter  (d.  1526) ---23 

Mediaeval  poetry  of  the  Cross  -        -        -        -        -        -        -         211  ff. 

Melancthon,  Phihp  (b.  1497,  d.  1560)       -        .        -        -        .      278,357 

Menken,  Gottfried,  Christian  mystic  (d.  1831) 339 

Merovingian  age  (511 — 751) 157,  1S6 

Meyer,  J.  F.  v.,  Christian  mystic  (d.  1848)        -         -         .       239,  339,  342 

Michael  Angelo  (b.  1474,  d.  1564) 311,316 

Milton,  John  (b.  1608,  d.  1674),  Biblical  epics  of  -  -  -  -  320 
Milvian  Bridge,  Battle  of  the  (28th  Oct.,  312) 140 


444  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Minucius  Felix  (fl.  abt.  220)     -         -        -        -        -        -        -  -114 

Mithridates  (d.  B.C.  63),  Coins  of,  bearing  a  cruciform  emblem  15,  129 

Monogrammatic  writing  in  the  pre-Constantine  Church  -         -  -     127 

Montanus  of  Spires,  Ode  of              -         -        -         -        -        -  -217 

Murillo,  Barth.  Steph.,  Span,  painter  (d.  1682)         -        -        -  -     311 

Nicaea,  Council  of  (325)  -- 146 

,,       Sec.  council  of  (787)  -.-..-.     177 

Nicetas  the  Paphlagonian  (fl.  abt.  880)     ------     250 

Nicholas  I.,  Pope  (858—867) 164,  253 

„         Peregrinus,  ascetic  (abt.  1090)  -         -        -        _        .     231 

Niedleben,  Monuments  of,  belonging  to  the  Bronze  age  -  -  -  20 
Nilometer,  The  --.-..---.^ 
Nilus,  disciple  of  John  Chrysostom  ----__     229 

Odilo,  Abbot  of  Clugny  (d.  1048)  ----__     251 

Oetinger,  Friedr.  Chr.,  mystic  theologian  (d.  1782)  -        .         .     337 

Origen,  Eastern  Church  Father  (d.  abt.  253)  -         -         81,  116,  123 

Osiander,  Andreas,  Lutheran  theologian  (d.  1552),  on  the  sufferings 

of  Christians  289 

Oswald,  King  of  Northumbria  (d.  642)     ------     17^ 

Otfried  of  Weissenburg  (cent.  9)      -        -        -        -        -        -        -221 

Palladius,  Bp.  of  Helenopolis  in  Bithynia  (401— 431  (t//-,.-.)         -        -     228 
Palms  of  Solomon's  Temple     -----..-44 

Paracelsus,  Swiss  mystic  (d.  1541)   -------     328 

Patibulum,  Form  of  the   -----.---63 

Paul,  St.,  Testimony  of,  as  to  the  import  of  the  death  of  Christ  loi  ff. 

Paulicians  (arose  abt.  657)         -        - -     ^75 

Paulinus,  Bp.  of  Nola  (d.  431)  -        -        -        -        -     65  n.,  148,  193,  214 

Persians,  Crucifixions  among  the      ------         60,  61 

Perugino,  Pietri,  Ital.  painter  (d,  1524)      ------     311 

Peter,  St.,  Testimony  of,  to  the  import  of  the  death  of  Christ   -        -     loi 
Peter  Comestor,  French  ecclesiastic  (d.  1 1 88)  -         -        -        -     219 

„     Martyr,  writer  on  Spanish  affairs  (d.  1526)       -        -         -        -       23 

„     Martyr  Vermigli,  Ital.  Prot.  Reformer  (d.  1 562)       -        -        -     293 
„     of  Alcantara,  Span.  Franciscan  monk  (d.  1562)        -        -        -     231 
„     of  Bruis  (died  by  violence,  11 30)      -        -        -        -        -         -     174 

„     Pomponatius,  Ital.  philosopher  (d.  1525)  -        -        -        _     238 

„     the  Venerable,  Abbot  of  Clugny  (d.  11 56)         -         -        -      172,  174 

Petrarch  (d.  1374),  Opinion  of  as  to  the  origin  of  stigmatisations      -     238 

Picus,  Joh.,  Count  of  Mirandola  (d.  1494)  .         -         .         .      176,210 

Poets  of  the  German  Reformation  -        -        -         -        -        -321 

Priestly  significance  of  the  death  of  Christ        -----      90 

Prometheus,  Punishment  of  --->--_       ^3 


INDEX.  445 

PAGE 

Prophetic  significance  of  the  death  of  Christ  -        .        .        .       gg 

Prudentius,  Christian  poet  of  Spain  (d.  after  404),  Passion  hymns  of    213 

Quaresmius,  Italian  resident  in  Jerusalem  (cent.  17)  -  .  .  306 
Quenstedt,  Lutheran  theologian  (d.  1688) 285 

Radegonde,  Prankish  queen  (d.  587)  -  -  -  .  214,229,238 
Rafael  (Raffaello  da  Urbino,  b.  1482,  d.  1520)  -        -        -        -     311 

Raymond  de  Sebonde,  Span,  philosopher  (d.  1432)  ...     265 

„         Lull(d.  1315) 210 

,,         Palmarius  (d.  1200) 231 

Reccared  (acceded  to  the  Catholic  faith  589),  Cross  presented  to  -  igz] 
Religious  significance  of  the  infliction  of  death  punishment       -        -  47  ff. 

Rembrandt,  Paul  (d.  1669) 312 

Reni,  Guido,  Ital.  painter  (d.  1642) 311 

Resurrection,  The,  of  Christ,  the  point  from  which  His  death  was 

viewed   ------     100 

,)  „  „       Mediaeval  representations  of       -        -     204 

Rhegius,  Urban,  Lutheran  theologian  (d.  1 541)         ....     287 

Romans,  Crucifixions  among  the      -.--...60 
Romanus  IL,  Emperor  of  the  East  (959 — 963)  ....     igg 

Roos,  Magn.  Friedr.,  Germ,  mystic  theologian  (d.  1803)  -        -     338 

Rosicrucians,  mystics  of  the  beginning  of  the  1 8th  cent.  -        -     331 

Rubens,  John  Paul,  Flem.  painter  (b.  1577,  d.  1640)  -        -        -     311 

Ruffinus,  Ecclesiastical  writer  (d.  410)      -         -        -  21,136,148,228 

Runic  crosses,  Antiquity  of      -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -21 

Saint  Victor,  Adam  de  (cent.  12),  Paschal  Hymn  of  ...  216 
Salmasius,  Claudius,  Protestant  controversialist  (b.  1596,  d.  1653)  -  307 
Savonarola,  Jerome,  Ital.  Reformer  (d.  at  the  stake  1498)  -  -  263 
Schleiermacher,    Friedr.    E.    D.,   "the   German   Plato"  (d.    1834), 

Aspect  of  Christ's  death  apprehended  by  -        -        -        -        -     344 

Schliemann,  Discoveries  of 14,  379 

Scriver,  Chr.,  Germ,  devotional  writer  (d.  1693)  -  -  -  -  291 
Seduhus,  Rom.  poet  (fl.  450),  Paschal  Hymns  of      -        -        -        -     214 

Serapeion,  Destruction  of  the 2,  131 

Sergius  IL,  Pope  (844— 847) 206 

Serpents,  Worship  of---- y;} 

Sistus,  bishop  and  martyr  (d.  258)  -iii 

Sophronius,  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  (cent.  7)     -        -        -  163  n.,  212 

Southern  cross,  Constellation  of  the  ------       38 

Sozomen,  Eccles.  historian  (d.  after  443)-        -        -        -        -         -  65  n. 

Spanheim,  Ezek.  and  Fred.      --.--.--     307 
Spener,  Ph.  J.,  German  pietist  (d.  1705)  -        -        -        -        -        -    343 

Starke,  Chr.,  Germ,  expositor  (d.  1744)    -        -        -        .        .         .     285 


446  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Statue,  taken  for  that  of  Hippolytus 127 

Stauros,  Derivation  of  the  term        -        - 6in. 

Staupitz,  John  (d.  1524) 262 

Stier,  Rudolf,  Christian  mystic  (d.  1867) 339 

Stigmatisations,  among  the  Romish  ascetics     -----     233 
Sufferings,  The,  of  Christ,  always  to  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  His 

exaltation -----     100 

Suidas,  Greek  lexicographer  (cent.  11) 156 

Sulpicius  Severus,  ecclesiastical  historian  (end  of  cent.  4)  -         -     148 

Suso,  ascetic  and  mystic  (d.  1365) 230,  257 

Swastika  or  Svastica  Cross  (Fig.  23),  Significance  of  the  10,  31,  130 

„        Appearance  of,  upon  Etruscan  urns 18 

jj  „  ,,       Scandinavian  monuments  -         -        -       20 

„         Influence  of,  upon  the  character  of  Indian  architecture       -       13 

Tau  of  the  Prophet  Ezekiel 80 

Tauler,  John,  of  Strassburg,  mystic  theologian  (d.  1361)  -         -         -     257 
Tertullian,  Church  Father  (fl.  195)   -         -         -  81,  114,  115,  122,  153 

Theodolinde,  Lombard  queen  (acceded  to  the  Catholic  faith  5  87)  1 2  5 , 1 95 , 1 96 

Theodoret,  Bp.  of  Cyrus  in  Syria  (d.  457) 228 

Theodoras  Studites,  Abbot  of  Studium  (d.  826)         -         -         -      170,177 

Theodosius  I.,  the  Great,  Emperor  (378 — 395),  Coins  of  -         -        -     156 

„  II.,  Emperor  (402 — 450),  Coins  of  -         .        .         .     j^g 

Theodulf,  Bp.  of  Orleans  (d.  821),  Hymns  of 216 

Theophylact,  Archbp.  of  Bulgaria  (d.  abt.  1112)       -        -        -        -     170 

Theresa,  Span.  Carmelite  nun  (d.  1582)  -----      231,  317 

Thirty  Years'  War  (ended  1648),  Decay  of  Christianity  during  the    -     314 
Thor,  Hammer  of-         -        -         -        -        -        -         -        -        -.20 

Tigranes  (d.  B.C.  55),  Coins  of         -        -        -        -        -        -        -129 

Tintoretto,  Italian  painter  (d.  1594)  -         -        -         -        -        -311 

Titian,  Venetian  painter  (b.  1477,  d.  1576) 311 

Trajan,  Rom.  emperor  (98 — in),  Persecutions  under       -        -        -     ill 

Tree  of  Knowledge,  The 9,12,219 

„  „  „      relation  of  to  the  cross  of  Christ        -         -       75 

„       Life 8,42,87 

Trent,  Council  of  (1545— 1563) 298,302 

Trullus,  The,  in  Constantinople,  Second  Council  of  (691  or  692)    166,  197 

Valentinian  I.,  Emperor  (364 — 375)-        -----     129,156 

„  HI.,     „         (425—455)-        -         -         -         -         -     153,193 

Valerian,  Emperor  (255 — 259),  Persecutions  during  the  closing  period 

of no 

Van  Dyck,  Anton,  Flemish  painter  (d.  1641)     -         -        -        -        -     311 

Van  Eyck,  John,  of  Bruges  (cent.  15)         -        -        -        -        -        -     204 

Venantius  Fortunatus,  Bp.  of  Poitiers  (d.  abt.  600)   -        -        -        -     214 


INDEX.  447 

PAGE 

Victor,  St.,  Adam  ae,  Christian  poet  (cent.  12)  -        -        -        -  216 

Vigilius,  Pope  (538—555) 157 

Volterra,  Daniel  di,  Italian  painter  (d.  1566) 311 

Volvandus  of  Strassburg,  Dominican  prior  (d.  after  1230)  -         -  230 

Waldenses  (beginning  of  cent.  12)-        -        -        -        -        -        -175 

Warka,  Clay  coffins  found  at   --------8 

Wessel,  John,  of  Groningen  (d.  1489)       --.-_.     262 

Wicliff,  John,  of  Lutterworth  (d.  1384) 176 

Winfrid,  or  Bonifacius,  native  of  Kirton,  Devonshire,  evangelist  and 

martyr  (d.  755)  --.-....      160,  215 

Wood  of  the  Cross,  Legends  regarding  the       -         -        -      217,218,222 
Words  of  Christ  upon  the  Cross        -         -         -         -        -         -        -97  ff. 

Worship  of  the  Early  Church  directed  to  the  person  of  Christ  -     113 

Xiphilinus,  Patr,  of  Constantinople  (d.  1075)    -        -        -        -        -     250 

Yggdrasill,  World  Tree  of  Scandinavian  mythology         -        21,  219,  419 

Zinzendorf,    Count   Nicholas    L.   von,  Moravian   leader   (b.    1700, 

d-  1760)     -  _ 321,  3S7,  355 

Zurburan,  Francis  de.  Span,  painter  (d.  1662) 311 

Zwingli,  Ulric,  Swiss  Prot.  Reformer  (b.  1484,  d.  1531)     -        -        -     299 


Hazell,  Watson,  &  Viney,  Printers,  London  and  Aylesbury. 


^ 


BV160  .Z853  RES.STORAGE 
The  cross  of  Christ :  studies  in  the 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


00051 


DATE  DUE 


GAYLORD 


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